


The Last People Standing

by thoughtlessblogger



Series: The Draw [4]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Angst, Businessman Harry, Con Artists, Conman Louis, Deception, Established Relationship, Fire, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Guns, Kid Fic, Kidnapping, M/M, Minor Character Death, POV Louis, Sad Ending, Smut, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-17 22:57:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 47,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5888476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoughtlessblogger/pseuds/thoughtlessblogger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the last three years Louis' worked exclusively under Agent Harvey at Interpol without incident, but when his best friend and his daughter go missing he's forced into action to figure out how they're connected and how Agent Harvey is involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Birds are Mocking Me

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is the absolute last part to this story. I promise. I don't think I'll be able to update regularly, but I do promise this will be finished. The past couple of weeks have been terrible for a couple reasons and I have to say it's been a bit hard for me to get inspiration to write, but I'm working on it. It will be finished.
> 
> This is a part of series, so I suggest you read [those parts first.](http://archiveofourown.org/series/326945)
> 
> This fic gets quite dark in places, so I suggest you pay attention to the tags. If this doesn't sound like something you'd like to read, don't.
> 
> As usual all mistakes are my own and I don't own the members of One Direction. All chapter titles came from songs I listened to while writing this. It you want a list I'd be happy to give it to you.
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated and if you want you can find me on tumblr at [thoughtlessblogger.](http://www.thoughtlessblogger.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thank you and enjoy!

When Louis accepted Agent Harvey's offer to work for him, he knew it was sketchy what he was doing, but he knew Harry and Claire would be a bit more protected. No one at Interpol aside from Harvey and his assistant knew about Louis – and Niall for that matter – and if someone were to find out they all could be arrested. What he does for Agent Harvey has to remain under wraps or they'll be hell to pay. 

He still fears that Harvey could turn him in any time he wants too. For that reason he watches Harvey carefully for any signs of a double cross. Harvey is odd, but so far Louis hasn't seen any reason to suspect Harvey of going back on his word. And while Harvey has set up patrols around their house and Claire's school every now and then when Louis is away on a mission to make sure his family is safe, he still doesn't trust Harvey. Rule number one: never trust someone who has the power to take you down. 

Turning Louis in to have arrested isn't even the only option Harvey has, either. He's got the power and the resources to have Louis dragged off to some place no one would ever think to look and killed. Or he could leave Louis to rot a rundown building in the middle of Trujilo. The only people who would miss him is Harry and Claire and as rich and powerful as Harry is, he doesn't have the resources to take on Interpol or to hunt Louis down like that. He's got the lads, as well, but they wouldn't be able to do too much to find him because Harvey knows of them too. What he's doing is dangerous for that reason, but it's hard to complain when the jobs themselves aren't all that dangerous, usually.

Normally, the missions Harvey send him on are relatively easy: obtain information. He's gone for international criminals, drug lords, corrupted politicians and law officials. It's mostly undercover work and as long as he does his job well and quickly he's home within a month, sometimes less than that. He's does get in some dangerous situations at times – usually when he's targeting a drug lord – and has had to take some people out, but for the most part he's been relatively safe, has yet to be injured, a fact that Harry has been very happy about.

It's easy, what he's doing, and it provides him with work when he needs it – although, more often than not Harvey is calling him. The thing that bothers him about it is that they never get the full details of the jobs, which Louis and Niall have complained to Harvey about multiple times, citing the exact reasons they should have the full information – because it's dangerous for them not to have it – but Harvey never complies with their requests. 

Once a job is finished they still don't get the information. They turn in whatever it was they were going after to Harvey, he tells them good job and sends them on their way until their next mission. It's annoying, but they manage.

Zayn and Liam have mentioned several times that they think Niall and Louis are insane for taking part in this. Louis knows they're right and he's tried explaining his reasoning to them. He thinks they get it because they do help out when either Louis or Niall have gotten themselves in a situation where they can't contact Harvey, but they never explicitly get involved, wanting to stay away from it as much as possible.

Louis still hasn't been able to get out of Niall why he had agreed to this. He'd thought that maybe since he was in the same boat Niall would open up about it more, but all he's got is Niall agreeing that they were screwed either way while they were in the middle of Islamabad on the only job Harvey had put them together on. Louis had to agree and let the subject drop quickly because yeah, they were screwed either way.

And in the three years he's been doing this he's never once been compromised on one of his missions. There's a first time for everything, though.

He's been in America for close to three weeks now, two of which he spent working his way into Senator Berry's good graces. He'd gone in under the guise of the new Executive Assistant after bribing the previous one to take a nice, quiet holiday in Bora Bora. His goal was to infiltrate the Senator's personal bank account, as well as his accounting records for the past four years, which wouldn't have been a problem normally, but Senator Berry had been accused in the past of laundering and profiteering and had sealed up his monetary information from the public as well as most of his staff. 

Louis thinks that makes him look more guilty, but the people of Georgia seemed to drop the accusations when a large sum of money had been donated to the Atlanta Police Force in Senator Berry's name. Things had been quiet for Senator Berry for about a year until a former staffer claimed that he'd been accepting money from the Police Chief in order to cover up the Atlanta P.D.'s less than legal actions. The staffer hadn't gone into detail and Louis hadn't been told. The staffer had disappeared a week after the story broke.

In the first week Louis hadn't found out anything other than the fact that Senator Berry is having an affair, but that seemed to be common knowledge amongst his staff. It was as he was closing his second week out that he'd finally gained access to Senator Berry's bank account and records on criminal justice. He'd been leaving his flat, on his way to the airport to take the files to Harvey when he'd been attacked from behind.

He'd not seen the attack coming and it had been easy for the attacker to knock him out. He'd woken up sometime later in a dark, dirty box of a room. He was tied to a chair and didn't see anyone for several hours. Someone had eventually came in, told him that if he cooperated he'd be let go easily, gave him some food, told him he'd been there for about a day and had then left.

From his count he's been here at least two more days, but it's hard to tell since there are no windows or clocks and the only other room he's seen aside from this one was the toilet across the hall they take him to twice a day.

The only place he's bond is his wrists, which hadn't been tight to begin with. Either these people want him to try to escape or they haven't a damn clue what they're doing. Still, he'd loosened the rope around his wrists hours ago, could get free at any point, but he doesn't know what's behind the door and he's unarmed and he's yet to figure out why he's here. He wants answers before he tries to make an escape, which is why he's stayed “tied” to the chair for the past hour while some big, buff, bald American beats the shit out of him.

Louis doesn't understand most of what the man is even asking him and he definitely doesn't have the answers, has stayed silent most of the time, letting the man repeatedly hit him like a punching bag.

The man aims another punch to his jaw, demanding, “Why do you have personal information of Senator Berry's?”

“Well, see,” Louis starts, spitting out blood, “even if I wanted to tell you I won't.”

“Who do you work for?”

“What makes you think I'm not working on my own?”

That earns him another punch, this one landing in his gut. He doubles over as much as he can, gasping for breath. “Seriously, I don't know who you think I am, but I have no information for you.”

The man groans, turning away from him and running a hand through his hair.

“And I've got to say,” he continues, slowly freeing himself from the rope, “your interrogation technique could use some work. Even if I did have information you'd never get it out of me.”

“I know who you are, Louis Tomlinson.”

Louis freezes, not finishing pulling free of the rope. He narrows his eyes, watching as the man turns around. “Is that so? Plan on telling me what I'm doing here then?” When the man doesn't answer, Louis asks, “If you know who I am why do you assume I'm working for someone?”

“Because there's only three other people I know of you'd ever willingly work with and none of them are here,” the man answers. “But I do know you've been working for Interpol.”

His heart starts racing at that. This man obviously knows who he is, has done his homework and most likely knows about Harry and Claire. Louis doesn't know why he's here, what this is about or _anything_ , but he does know that if this man threatens Harry or Claire he will-.

“Relax, Mr. Tomlinson, your family is safe.”

“You can understand why I wouldn't exactly believe you about that,” he spits, deciding that he needs to get out of here now. 

“I wouldn't lie to you,” the man tells him coming closer.

“Fat chance,” Louis snorts, pulling free of the ropes, but keeping his hands behind his back.

The man rolls his eyes, brings his fist up, aiming for Louis' face again. Louis ducks out of the way, catching the man's hand in his. This man is easily twice his body weight, but Louis' got the element of surprise and he's a good fighter. _Thank you, Liam_.

While the man struggles to get his hand free, Louis is able to flip them around and push the man against the wall, with one arm trapped behind him and Louis' arm putting pressure against his throat.

“I don't know who you are, but I swear to god if my family is hurt I will hunt you down and do things to you you can't possibly imagine,” he threatens, putting more pressure on the man's neck. The man gags. Louis ignores it. “Now tell me who you are and what you want?”

He relieves some of the pressure he was applying, the man gasping for breath. “It doesn't matter who I am,” he says between breaths. “All that matters is that you can't trust Scott Harvey.”

Well, Louis knew that. He doesn't need a bald American telling him that, but he's not going to admit it. Not when he has no idea who this is.

“Right, like I'd believe you.”

“He's planning something,” the man continues. “I'm not sure what, but it's big and bad for a lot of people, including yourself.”

“Yeah, and why is that?”

“He's planning on pinning it on you and Niall Horan.”

Somewhere in his mind, Louis knows there's a good chance this man is telling him the truth, but he was kidnapped and kept in a dark, musty room for several days and then beaten up for information that he doesn't have and this man knows of Harry, Claire and Niall. He doesn't trust this guy any more than he trusts Harvey.

“And if I said I didn't believe you?”

“You should.”

“I don't know who you are.”

“You won't.”

Louis makes the mistake of sighing, releasing the pressure he had on the man and he's overpowered. The man breaks free of his grasp, pushing him back. Louis stumbles, sees the man about to his him, but doesn't have time to defend himself and the man's punch gets him right in the jaw and he falls to the floor, grasping at his face.

He expects the man to haul him back up, but he only walks over and stands over top of him.”You don't have to trust me,” he says, looking down at Louis. “But you can't trust Agent Harvey either.”

Spitting out more blood onto the floor, he wipes at his mouth, staring up at him. “Well, I've got news for you, buddy, I haven't trusted him from day one,” he replies, shifting around on the floor, the ache in his body finally setting in. “Don't need you to tell me not to.”

The man frowns down at him. “Get up.”

“Why? So you can knock me down again? I don't think so,” he says, but he's already slowly getting to his feet.

The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out USB drive and holds it out to him. Louis eyes carefully, taking it in his hand. “What is this?”

“Look at it when you get home,” is all the man says, walking toward the door. “Don't trust Harvey and protect your family. You're free to go.”

The man is out of the room, door wide open, before Louis can decide if that was a threat or not.

**

Once he'd left the room, deciding that enough time had passed and it wasn't a trap, he found all the stuff he'd had on him when he was attacked, including the files on Senator Berry. He'd gathered up his things and got out of there as quick as he could, never coming in contact with another person.

He'd immediately gone to the airport, but had gotten a ticket for Columbus, Ohio instead of London. His face and abdomen were pretty banged up and it's been a long time since Harry's seen him like that and Claire never has. He didn't want to put either of them through that. Not to mention, he's pretty sure he'd bruised his ribs and he wasn't sure he'd have been to handle the plane from Atlanta to London.

He'd stayed in Columbus for a week, waited for his ribs to feel better and the bruises to fade before flying back to London. He's still not been home, has to have his post job meeting with Harvey. He's never in the mood for these meetings, but he especially doesn't want to do it now.

The meetings are always in a spot that Harvey chooses since Louis can't exactly waltz into the Interpol offices to find Harvey's. He has been to the offices before, but he always gets twitchy and paranoid every time he goes in. Harvey never reacted well either so they decided on neutral ground.

Today, it's a cafe. One Louis' never been to and doesn't care for. It's too loud and crowded and he knows that's exactly why Harvey picked it. Too loud to hear what they're saying if people try to listen and too crowded for someone to try to pull anything and too see clearly. Harvey arrived first, as usual, and picked a table in the back corner as far away from prying eyes as possible.

“What happened to your face?” Harvey asks as Louis' opens his bag to pull out the folder. “Did something go wrong?”

“Nah, just got into it with a senior staffer because he thought I was hitting on his wife,” he lies. “I couldn't tell him that I was happily married to a man.”

Harvey's brow furrows. “Are you actually married?”

“Shouldn't you know that?”

“I've found no records.”

Louis only shrugs, pushing the folder across the table. He likes to keep these meetings as clinical as possible, no talk of his personal life. “This is all I have, all you asked for and a little more.”

Harvey nods, grabbing the folder and flipping through it. As he gets to the end he hums approvingly, shutting the folder and putting it in his briefcase. “Good work.”

“I suppose you don't want to tell me what this is for?”

“No.”

“You've had me in America a lot,” Louis points out. “Targeting a lot of politicians.”

“Yes.”

“I'm just saying it's bit weird that a British Interpol agent is working on American cases,” Louis states.

Harvey sighs. “Mr. Tomlinson, you know I can't discuss this with you.”

Louis holds his hands up, leaning back in his chair. “I know. I know. Just like seeing you get worked up.”

“I don't get worked up,” Harvey defends. “I just hate when you ask questions you know I won't answer.”

That Louis knows, doesn't stop him from doing it. 

“Do you have anything else?” Harvey questions. “Everything went okay? No problems or concerns?”

There were a lot of problems and a lot of concerns, but that doesn't mean Louis' going to tell him. It doesn't mean Louis will hand over the USB drive. He won't mention it.

Louis puts on a sweet smile and lies. “I'd tell you if there were.”

**

Dog greets him at the door when he walks through, jumping at him and drooling everywhere. She'd learned a long time ago that Louis wouldn't pay attention to her if she barked when he came in. He doesn't ever tell Harry when he's coming home, mostly because it stops Harry from worrying if he's late, and he always sneaks in and surprises him and Claire, which may not be the safest thing to do all things considered, but he's yet to have a gun pulled on him or a knife thrown and Dog has stopped giving him away when he comes in.

He sets his bags down in the hall, crouching down to pet her. She licks him once across the face then runs off. He was hoping she'd run in the direction of where Harry and Claire are, but she goes into a dark room. As he stands up he gets a whiff of something cooking. 

The kitchen then. 

He should have known. Harry likes to cook while Claire sits at the table doing her homework. Louis had asked once why Claire didn't use one of the three offices they have or any of the other rooms. His answer from both of them had been that they enjoy spending that time together even if they weren't talking. Louis gets it. He's often got Claire in the room with him while he's doing research into his jobs. She's usually reading or drawing while he does it. It's comforting to have her there with him, to know that she's safe.

Walking down the hall, he decides to not walk in the room, asking what they're having like he would any other day. He's going to play with them. When he gets to the door, he backs against the wall and peeks in. Harry's cutting up vegetables, humming to himself and Claire's at the table notebooks and textbooks spread around her as she frowns down.

She's sitting so she can see the whole room, including the door and where Harry is. There's no way she won't see him when he walks in, but Harry won't. He takes a couple of quiet steps in, stopping when Claire starts to raise her head.

It takes her a minute to see him and when she does her eyes widen slightly and she starts to say something, but he holds his finger to her lips, pointing at Harry with his free hand. She snaps her mouth shut immediately, rolling her eyes. She's trying to act like she's above it, but Louis sees the smile playing at her lips.

“Claire,” Harry starts, his back to them both, “will you please try the peppers today?”

“You know I don't like them,” she replies, smiling wider as Louis starts toward Harry again.

“You've never even had them,” Harry tells her. “How can you know you don't like them if you've never had them?”

“I just know, daddy, okay?”

Louis' right behind Harry now, making sure to quieten his breathing. “You're just as stubborn as your father is,” Harry remarks.

“Hey, I resent that,” Louis says, wrapping his hands around Harry from behind.

Harry jolts, dropping the knife onto the peppers he was cutting, and yelps. Claire starts cackling and Louis doesn't even try to hold in his laughter as he hears Dog's feet scraping across the floor as she runs in.

He lets go of Harry, who turns around with a frown. “Louis! I could've cut my hand off then,” he states. “I hate you.”

Regardless of his words, Harry pulls him into a hug, pecking him on the lips as Claire runs over, wrapping herself around him. “You had her in on that, didn't you?”

They both innocently blink up at him. “No.”

Harry lets go of him. “Like I can't tell you're lying.”

“There was a time when you couldn't tell,” Louis says, turning to the side to pick Claire up. She's gotten a lot bigger since she came into their lives and it's a bit harder for him to hold her now, but he manages. 

“I missed you, papa,” she mutters, burying her face in his neck.

“Missed you too, Miss Claire.”

“Actually, I think if you recall,” Harry continues, “I always knew you were lying, just not what about.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “'course you did, darling.” He pecks Harry on the cheek as he carries Claire away. “By the way, Claire, you father is right. You've never actually eaten peppers. You can try them tonight.”

“Okay, papa.”

“Hey,” Harry draws out, turning to them and pointing his knife. “Why did you agree so easily for him?”

Claire pulls away from him, tilting her head. “Because papa's been gone for weeks,” she says like Harry should of known.

To be fair to her, he probably should have. Whenever Louis returns home after having been gone for an extended amount of time she's always easier to get along with and more willing to do what he says. Harry hates it. Louis secretly takes great joy in it, even if it does make him feel guilty for leaving.

“Where are you taking her?” Harry asks as they head for the door. “She's still got stuff to do.”

“Relax, Harry. She can do it later. I just got home,” Louis says. “Want to spend some time with my favorite girl.”

“Yeah well what about spending time with your favorite husband?”

“You'll get your time in later,” Louis tells him, walking out the room and into the the conservatory. “So, tell me how your life has been.”

He sets her down on the settee and sits next to her, letting her curl into his side as she starts rambling on about her life, catching Louis up like she always does. 

She tells him about her friends from school – Melissa and Evan are apparently an item now, but Claire doesn't like Evan and won't talk to Melissa. He doesn't really understand it, but he nods along anyway. The Saturday she had to go to the office with Harry – she actually enjoys that, but she won't admit it to Harry. The day Niall stopped by to bring her some clothes from China – it's something he's been doing for years, bringing her clothes from every place he goes and he has managed to claim the favorite uncle spot, that is until one of the others brings her something. She even tells him about the stomach bug she had last week – something he will be having a chat with Harry about – and about how Dog ripped up one of her favorite pillows – something that Harry dealt with by putting Dog in time-out and buying her two new pillows. Louis will need to have a chat with him about spoiling her.

When she's finished telling him the highlights of her three weeks she asks about how his time was. His response is always the same: “Oh, you know, Claire. Work is work.” She's still young enough that she doesn't question it any further and if she does she never mentions it to him. He knows she asks Harry a lot about where he's at and what he's doing while he's gone, but Harry says that he always just distracts with something – usually the promise of chocolate – because he doesn't like lying to her.

Louis points out that it's not lying exactly because she has a vague idea that what Louis does involves a lot of secrets and traveling – that mostly because he usually brings her something touristy from the places he's at. She knows that what he does is sometimes dangerous and that her uncles are involved somehow. She still has nightmares occasionally of her parents' death, so she has some understanding that what Louis does isn't widely accepted and can go badly. (The first time she dreamt that he and Harry were the ones that were killed in front of her, he stayed up the rest of the night, locked up in his office, crying to himself about it for a lot of reasons, none of which he's ever discussed with Harry and probably never will.) 

And Louis has told Harry that the older he gets the more he'll tell Claire, but that he won't tell her everything because the less she knows the better off she'll be. Harry argues that's not true, that she'd be better able to protect herself if she knew exactly what she was dealing. He has to admit that Harry makes a compelling point, but he still stands firm that Claire will know what she needs to know when she needs to know it.

While he's telling about the trip he took to Savannah one weekend and the boats he saw docked there he notices that she's started bouncing excitedly next to him. “Claire,” he says, cocking an eyebrow. “Why are you-.”

“This is close to where you give me my present,” she informs him.

“Oh. And what makes you think I brought you one?”

Her eyes widen. “Did you not?” she asks, pouting. “You always do, though.”

“Of course I did, sweetheart. It's in my backpack in the hall.”

“Can I go get it?” shes asks him hopefully.

He nods, humming. As she's skipping through the doorway, he calls after her, “There's two parts to it.”

He gets up to find Harry while Claire's preoccupied. Harry's still in the kitchen, but this time he's sitting at the table, glasses on as he reads through something on his phone.

“Hi, love,” he says, walking over to him and leaning down to kiss him.

Harry kisses him back, arm bent at a weird angle to cup the back of Louis' neck. When Louis breaks away, he smiles at Harry and sits next to him at the table. “God, I've missed you.”

“Do I have to say it back?” Harry asks, eyes back on his phone. “Because frankly I'm getting tired of saying it.”

“Oh hush you.”

“What'd you get her this time?”

“A pictorial book on Georgia and a Bee the Balm gift set that I picked up in some souvenir shop in Savannah.”

“You know,” Harry starts, setting his phone aside, “if you keep buying her stuff we're going to run out of places to put it all.”

Louis snorts. “Yeah, this coming from Mr. I'll-Just-Buy-Everything-In-The-Toy-Shop-Since-They-Didn't-Have-The-Thing-She-Wanted.”

Harry frowns at him. “I can afford to buy my daughter things and I shouldn't be judged for that.”

“Well, we're spoiling her and we should start making her work for the things she has.”

“That time is still a way away,” Harry points out.

“We should put her to work now,” he retorts. “All I'm saying is we're supporting Claire and Dog and as much as Dog tries there's still only one of them that can fend for their self eventually and there's no time like the present to start teaching that.”

Harry snorts out a laugh, shaking his head. Claire comes running in then, book and lip balm in hand. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you.”

“Is it better than when he bought you the toy store?”

Claire puts her hands on her hips as best she can, tilts her head, and frowns. “Papa, you know he didn't actually buy me the store. Stop trying to beat him.”

Harry starts laughing, while he can only stare after her as she walks out of the kitchen. “Shut up,” he mumbles. “I hate you both.”

“You love us!” Claire yells from the other room. 

“What she said,” Harry agrees, getting up to check on dinner.

Dog comes trotting in, placing her head on his knee. “I'm being betrayed by my family, can you believe that?” Dog's response is a sigh. “Yeah, I know.”

It's later as he and Harry are doing the dishes, that Harry asks him something he wasn't expecting.

“When was the last time you spoke to Zayn? Because Claire's been wanting some more drawing lessons.” 

Admittedly, it's been a while and Louis can't remember. 

When they last spoke Zayn was planning something in Peru. He assumes Zayn's still there, even though it was months ago when they had the discussion. Although, he thinks he remembers Zayn telling him he would be back in about two months. How much time has passed between then and now? If it's been longer he should definitely try contacting him because something isn't adding up here and he's not entirely sure what it is.

“Uh, I don't really remember,” he answers, accepting the plate Harry hands him to dry. “But in the next couple of days I'll see if I can get a hold of him.”

“Okay and don't think I can't see those faded bruises on your face,” Harry says. “I won't ask because you're alive and here right now, but I do see them and I know something went wrong.”

Louis only hums in response because there's nothing he can really say to that. Harry's perceptive when he wants to be so he knew Harry would notice the slight discoloring left on his face, he'd just hoped Harry wouldn't comment on it. He should've known better, but at least Harry isn't pushing it.

Still, Louis' got an unsettling feeling in his stomach for the rest of the evening.

**

Closing the door to his office, Louis flicks on the light and goes to his desk, turning on his computer. Once it's up, he pulls out the USB drive and sticks it in the port. A box pops up with several folders in it, but he can't access any of them.

The whole thing is encrypted and after several minutes of trying to get past it himself he gives up, slumping into his chair and sighing.

“Why in the world do people give me these things if I can't access the information on them?” he mutters, rubbing at his temple.

He's about to take the USB out of the port, fingertips barely grazing it when he gets an idea. He pulls out his phone, dialing Liam's number. 

“Hello?” Liam answers. “I'm on holiday with Sophia in Australia right now so make it quick.”

Louis furrows his brow, pulling his phone away to look at it. When he puts it back to his ear, he says, “Uh, mate, you all right?”

There's a pause and then, “Oh, Lou. It's you. Sorry about that.”

“Who'd you think it was?”

“Niall.”

“Niall?”

“Yeah, the bastard's been calling me like every day,” Liam says with an exasperated sigh. 

“I thought he wasn't going to be able to contact anyone,” Louis points out. “What with him being somewhere in the Middle East and all.”

Liam sighs again. “Oh, is that where he's at? The fucker never would tell me.”

Humming, Louis shuffles around in his chair, turning so he can face the wall behind him. This is the first time he's spoken to Liam in about six months. They've both been busy – Liam with his jobs and his ongoing on-again-off-again relationship with Sophia and Louis with his Interpol thing, Harry, Claire, and Dog – and haven't had the chance. He knows that Liam met up with Harry and Claire right before flying to Australia, but Louis was already in America at that point. He didn't realize how much he actually missed Liam until just now.

Since they haven't spoken in a while Louis would love to catch up, but he's got something that needs dealt with first.

“So, Liam, tell me, I came across this USB and I went to look at what was on it, but it's encrypted and I-.”

“I'll be back in London in a couple days,” Liam says, cutting him off. “Where'd you get it?”

“It doesn't matter,” Louis tells him, hoping Liam takes the hint and doesn't ask more questions.

Thankfully, he doesn't. “I'll let you know when I'm back then.”

**

Waiting the couple of days for Liam to get back isn't fun for Louis. He's gone over his encounter with that man over and over again, but he cannot make sense of it. It's put him a bit on edge that whoever that man was knew who he was and about Harry and Claire. He can't figure out and can't figure out why the man handed over this USB. Nothing about it makes sense and every time he goes out he's checking over his shoulder to make sure he isn't being followed or about to be attacked.

It's worse when he's out with Harry and Claire, which, thankfully, hasn't been often because Claire's got school and Harry's working, but even at home he's been a bit jumpy. He knows Harry's picked up on it even if he hasn't said anything, but he's watching Louis with the worried look he gets when he knows Louis' stressed more than usual. And if Harry asked it's not like Louis could tell him anything. 

Harry would worry and he doesn't need to, not yet, anyway.

He'd like to have a conversation with Niall. He's the only one that understands what Louis goes through now and he doesn't want to drag the others into it. He'd be able to bounce whatever crazy hypothesis he comes up with off him. He could tell Niall about what the man said about Harvey. He wants to know what Niall's opinion is, but Niall's in the middle of the Middle East somewhere doing God only knows what and Louis has to wait.

So until Niall comes back Louis' going to continue taking Claire to school and picking her up, helping her with her school work and then terrorizing Harry with the help of Claire when he gets home. 

His days have been the same and he's okay with that because everything is okay, but he's happy for Liam coming back to London because he can finally give the USB to him, but also because it breaks up the monotony of his days.

When Liam opens the door for him, he pulls Louis into a hug. “Missed you, mate,” he says as Louis hugs him back. It's comforting, having Liam hug, familiar and something he used to take for granted. Not now, though, now he'd gladly let Liam hug him all day. Unfortunately, that can't happen. Releasing Louis and shutting the door, Liam asks, “Where's the USB?”

“Eager to get back to work?” Louis asks, raising his eyebrow.

“You've no idea,” Liam replies, walking down the hall to the room he keeps all his technology in. 

Louis' ever only been in this room a couple times. The first time he was in he nearly broke an entire shelf of cameras of various shapes and sizes. Liam had been none to thrilled an threatened to cut his dick off if Louis ever broke anything and because Louis values his dick he stays out as often as possible.

The room hasn't changed much, is still on the darker side and in an organized clutter. Liam's got two desks in the center of the room, set up in an “L” shape, with four different monitors on it.

By the time Louis gets in the room, Liam's already sitting at the desk with his glasses on, holding his hand out for the USB. “If you don't give me it I can't do what you want me to.”

“Sorry, Payno, was just expecting more of a “hi, how are you” type of greeting.”

Liam drops his hand, frowning. “Louis.”

He pulls out the USB and hands it to Liam as he comes around the desk. Once Liam's got it in the computer and pulled up, he starts clicking around “Well, it's definitely encrypted.”

“Thank you,” Louis replies dryly. 

“This isn't a system I'm too familiar with,” Liam continues as a bunch of white boxes pop up on the screen. “It's a code or summat. I've only came across it once before and it took me about two months to get past it.”

“Is that how long it's going to take?”

“For an amateur, yes. But for me,” he pauses, turning to smile up at Louis, “no.” He turns back to the screen, random numbers coming up now. “It'll still take some time, though. It's probably some sort of algorithm. And if not I'll still be able to break the encryption. It's gonna take a couple of days, though.”

He pressed a couple of keys on his keyboard as a system starts running scans on the USB and pushes away from the desk. “How time sensitive is this?”

Louis doesn't know. He won't admit that, though. “It's not that important.”

Liam eyes him for a second. “Well, listen,” he begins, “I'm working on building a new program to get through things like this. Mind if I test it out on this? It'll only take an extra week or so.”

On one hand this might be very time sensitive and could have something on it that needs dealing with as soon as possible, but Louis doesn't know who it was that gave it to him and he certainly doesn't trust him. He's not sure if this is a real thing or something that's just supposed to distract him.

“Go ahead,” Louis shrugs. “Just don't take longer than a month.”

“Not a problem.” Liam pulls himself back to his desk and starts typing. 

Louis starts pacing around the room. He's got some time to kill before he has to pick Claire up and he doesn't mind staying here and bothering Liam.

He hears Liam clear his throat after a while and he turns to him. Looking over the rim of his glasses, Liam asks, “You can't have your people at Interpol do this for you?” 

Technically, they aren't his people and Liam knows that. This is his way of trying to get information out of him. He could tell Liam the truth about how he obtained this, but he figures that for now, since he doesn't know much, the less people that know the better. Liam doesn't need to know a thing. 

“Just let me know what you find and don't mention this to anyone.” 

Liam eyes him suspiciously, nodding eventually. “Do you want to hear about Australia?”

**

Louis had almost considering ignoring the text from Harvey telling him to meet him in the same cafe from two weeks ago. He'd actually just rolled back over in bed and pulled Harry closer to him, but then he started thinking about what that man said about not trusting Harvey and he'd groaned. After a pressing a kiss to Harry's forehead he reluctantly got out of bed.

The cafe is still just as loud and crowded as the last time and somehow Harvey managed to get the same table as before.

“You a regular here?” Louis questions as he sits across from him.

“I've got another job for you,” Harvey says, not looking up from his papers. “And I need you to do it sooner rather than later.”

Louis eyebrows raise. “All ready? I just got back from one. Normally I have more time between. Can't-.”

Harvey raises a hand, cutting him off. “I need someone I trust to do it. Someone that I know will get the job done and that is, unfortunately, you, Mr. Tomlinson.”

“Uh-huh.” Louis purses his lips, crossing his arms. “What is it then?”

“Debra Dole,” Harvey begins, “is a chairman of the Democratic National Committee. She's a former senator of California and has been accused in the past of bribing members of the DEA into letting convicted drug felons go. No one knows why she does it and there's no solid proof of it, but she's got the DEA letting her do it. I need you to find out what's going on.”

Louis opens his mouth, closes it again. This is the fourth time in seven months that he's being sent to America. The fourth time he's 'investigating' a politician. 

“From what I can tell, you'll just be getting files off computers and maybe do a couple of unknowing interviews with people close to her. Should be fairly easy.”

“Why have I been going to America so much?”

Harvey finally looks up from his papers. “Because that's where I'm sending you.”

Louis smiles wryly. “Yeah, see I use that kind of logic with my daughter when I want her to do something around the house. But she's nine and I'm not. I'm _adult_. I won't fall for it. Why am I being sent to America so often?”

“Do you really want to get into this now?”

“I don't see why not.”

“There are a lot of corrupt politicians in America and-.”

“There are a lot of corrupt politicians here in England,” Louis points out. “Why aren't we investigating them?”

Harvey licks his lips, eyes narrowed. “Are you saying you don't want to do this?”

Louis sighs. This isn't getting them anywhere and he hadn't expected to get an actual answer. He's got a job to do and he'll do it, even if he isn't happy and it's sketchy. He'll do his job, he tells himself, but makes a mental note of this. He and Niall have a lot to discuss.

“I'll do it.”

“Good.”

**

The job was shit. It took him two weeks just to get access to any of Debra Dole's files and what he found was nothing. He ended up having to infiltrate the DEA, gaining access to their files where he found what Harvey was looking for. It was boring, a little more difficult than it should have been, Harvey practically dismissed him with a wave of his hand as soon as Louis handed over the file, and he's exhausted.

He just wants to crawl into bed and wait for Harry and Claire to get home. She's at school and will be for another couple of hours and Harry will be at work until this as well, so he should be able to go straight to his bed. He won't even get up when he hears them come, will just wait until Harry finds him there. All he wants is sleep right now.

That was his plan, anyway, but Harry's car is here and Louis' not sure what to make of that. As he walks through the house, Dog no where to be seen, he can hear muffled voices. He can't make out what they're saying, but the tone sounds amicable enough so he doesn't pull his gun, just continues following the sounds down the hall and into the kitchen.

When he gets there, Harry's standing at the work top, food spread out everywhere, smiling at him as he walks in. “Lou!” he exclaims. “Didn't expect you to be home so soon.”

Louis narrows his eyes, wonders if this is some sort of trap and Harry's trying to warn him, because he heard multiple voices and the only person he sees is Harry. “I-. Thought someone else was in here,” he says. “I could've sworn I heard someone else.” Harry only blinks at him. “Were you talking to yourself or summat? 'cause I-.”

“Louis!”

Louis yelps, jolting when someone wraps around him from behind and starts jumping up and down. Harry's laughing, so he knows he's not in danger, but he doesn't like being sneaked up on. He squirms, trying to break free, but that only makes his attacker hold on to him tighter, going on and on about how much he missed them.

“I swear,” Louis grits out, twisting in every direction. “Niall Horan I will kill you if you don't let me go.”

Niall cackles in his ear. “Not a chance, Louis.”

“This is pay back for when you did it to me,” Harry laughs.

“Let go of me, you Irish fool.” Louis twists to his right, elbowing Niall in the side. It doesn't seem to affect him any as he doesn't let loose. Louis sighs, stopping his fight. “If I hug you back will you let go of me?”

“Of course,” Niall says, loosening his grip.

Louis turns around, wraps his arms around Niall and breathes in. He smells like traveling, exactly the same way he smells right now and it makes him a bit nauseous. Louis lets him, taking a step back. “When'd you get back in London?”

“Couple hours ago,” he says. “All ready saw Liam, then thought I'd drop by to see if you were here.” Niall pauses, tilting his head. “Why weren't you?”

Frowning, Louis says, “What do you think?”

Niall nods, not questioning it. “Well, I called Harold over there when you weren't here and he came running to see me.”

“That I did,” Harry replies, grinning. “Although, now Louis is home and that's just made my day so much better.”

“I love you too,” Louis tells him. 

They stand in silence for a minute before Harry clears his throat. “Well, uh, I'll go and let you two talk.”

He says it as he's all ready walking toward the door and as he passes by Louis, he stops, cupping a hand behind his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. Harry deepens it a bit more than usual when people are around, but Louis lets him, kisses back until Harry pulls away with a shy smile. 

“Don't be too long, please.”

“Of course not.”

Harry pecks him on the cheek and walks out. Louis stares after him for a while long after he's gone. As much as Louis knows Harry would like to stay with him right now after he's been gone like that he's glad Harry knows he needs time alone with Niall.

Usually, no matter how badly Louis wants to see his family, if Niall is in London he'll go to him first after seeing Harvey. There are things he can only talk about with Niall, things that Zayn and Liam wouldn't understand, things that Louis can't share with Harry for a ton of reasons and he needs to get these things off his chest. Needs to tell someone, get the opinion of someone else and go from there. 

Niall is that person and Harry gets that. Harry knows that more often than not Louis won't be truly done with one of his missions until he goes over it with Niall. He didn't get to that with the last job and it left him feeling a bit uneasy, especially since things got weird with it at the end. He's really needed to talk to Niall and him just being here has all ready eased some of the tension in Louis' body.

He needs to talk to Niall and Harry picked up on that and excused himself and Louis couldn't love Harry more.

When he comes back to, Niall's digging around in the fridge. Niall pulls out of it eventually, holding two beers in his hand. He lets the fridge door close and heads toward the door. “Wanna go outside?” he asks, jerking his head in the general direction.

“Of course,” Louis says, accepting the beer Niall hands him as they walk out to the veranda.

Niall sprawls out in one of the chaise lounges, Louis sitting on the edge of the one next to him. “Where were you?” Niall asks. “Before I left?”

Louis sighs, bringing the beer bottle up his lips and taking some in his mouth. He holds it there for half a second, then swallows, setting the beer on the ground beside his feet. “America,” he says. “Georgia. Senator Berry, something about money laundering, profiteering, and being paid off by the Atlanta PD to cover up their immoral doings.”

Niall hums. “And just now?”

“America. Debra Dole, chairman for the DNC, former California Senator, has been accused of bribing members of the DEA to let convicted drug felons go,” Louis rattles off. “You?”

“Baghdad,” Niall answers. “The Prime Minister, well let's just say, you weren't the only one dealing with politicians being paid off by law enforcement or vice versa.”

Louis hums, grabbing his beer and drinking more.

“You've been in America a lot,” Niall comments, taking a sip of his own beer. “Do you know why?”

“Of course not,” he replies, settling back on his chaise. “Asked Harvey about it, but he won't tell me anything.”

Niall opens his mouth, shuts it quickly, then says, “Harry says you've been a bit more jumpy since that first trip to America than you usually are. Care to tell me why.”

Running a hand through his hair, he says, “I had a bit of weird encounter.”

“What's that mean?” Niall inquires, cocking an intrigued eyebrow.

“I was on my way to the airport,” he starts, “and I was attacked from behind, kept tied to a chair for a couple of days before anyone started to question me. It was this big, bald American and I didn't have any idea what he was asking me about for a long time. Told me eventually that he knew who I was and that I was working for Interpol. Told me not to trust Harvey because he was panning something big and bad that he was going to pin on the two of us. And he even told me that my family was okay so I shouldn't worry.”

Niall snorts. “Like you wouldn't actually worry.”

“Yeah.”

“Did he say what it was Harvey was planning?”

“No.”

Brows furrowed, Niall sits up straight. “Well, I mean, you and I don't trust him anyway.”

“That's what I told the guy, but that's not even the weirdest part,” he admits. “The guy handed me a USB and let me go. It's encrypted and I've got Liam working on it now. The guy didn't tell me what was on it. I have no idea what any of that was about.”

“I had a bit of weird encounter meself,” Niall says, scratching at his neck. “I was in the middle of the city, minding me own business when this guy comes up to me, starts telling me in broken English not to trust Harvey. I have no idea who this guy was and I would've followed after him, but I was actually working at that point and couldn't.” He pauses, frowning. “I didn't get anything out of mine, though.”

“Yeah, well be glad. Beefy American guy beat me up pretty good, ended up staying in America an extra couple days so Harry and Claire wouldn't see.”

Niall tilts his head, making a clicking sound with his mouth. “You know, don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting cryptic warnings from people I've never met, but I really didn't need this one.”

“Yeah,” Louis agrees. It's nice knowing Niall's as confused as he is and trusts Harvey as much as Louis does. It's good, a thing to bond over. However, it doesn't settle anything. 

After a moment of silence, he asks, “Niall, why did you start working for Harvey? The truth?”

“He basically blackmailed me,” Niall shrugs. “I mean, it's the same deal as you. He never explicitly said he'd have me arrested if I turned him down, but it was implied. You know, I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't.”

Louis nods. “Well, I didn't trust him before and I definitely don't trust him now. Just don't know what to do with that.”

“Eh, wait until Liam figures out that encryption, then we'll see.” Niall pauses, taking a drink of his beer. “Is Zayn in London? I know Harry said he'd not spoken to him in a while.”

Again, the unsettling feeling he got when Harry asked him about Zayn is back. He's still not talked to him, had meant to try contacting him, but Harvey sent him back to America and he forgot. It's been weeks since then and they still haven't heard from him. 

“Uh, no, I don't think so,” he says. “Think he's on a job.”

Niall hums, nodding. “Well, if he turns up before Liam's birthday I'll be shocked.”

**

If someone had asked Louis eight years ago if he'd be running normal errands before picking his daughter up from school he'd have laughed straight in their face because the thought would have been so absurd. The idea of having a daughter alone would have sent him into hysterics back then. Yet, here he is, doing just that.

Harry had asked him to drop off some documents to their lawyer's office. Louis had asked why he couldn't do it or why he couldn't just email, but Harry said the lawyer prefers physical copies and that between his four meetings today and his other actual work he didn't have time. Louis thinks that's a load of shit. It doesn't take more than five minutes to run in and drop it off, but he knows Harry's trying to get him out of the house and into more normal activities, so he hadn't called him out on it.

He knows he's been high strung – more than usual – even after his conversation with Niall. It hadn't helped and Harry knows something is up and is doing his best to keep Louis' mind distracted. It's working in a way because Louis' so worried he's going to forget to do something on the list Harry's made for him, but once he gets done for the day everything comes back to him. 

So far today Louis has bought groceries, made sure to get every bit of fruit Harry asked for and the very specific kind of chocolate he knows Claire likes. He's dropped the food back off at home, took Dog to her groomers, brought Dog home, paid his bills – the ones he has separate of Harry – and now he's dropped off the documents.

The only thing he's got left to do is get Claire from school and then he can go home and finally relax. Or maybe he'll go check up on how Liam's doing with breaking that encryption. Maybe Niall will come over and take Claire out somewhere so he and Harry can have some time alone. That sounds nice. 

Oh!

He's yet to try to get a hold of Zayn. Maybe he'll do that if he doesn't forget again. Maybe Harry should put that on his list for tomorrow.

Yeah, he'll definitely try contacting Zayn. He could do it now, he realizes, so as he walks out of the office building, he pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials Zayn's first number. It's the one he's only given to him, the lads – including Harry – and Claire.

The call goes straight to voice mail, which means he's either out of signal range or has it off, and he sighs, waiting for the tone. “Hey, mate, listen,” he starts, stopping just outside the building and getting close to the wall, “I don't know where you're at or what you're doing, but everyone's getting a bit antsy that you're not back. And like, I know you're just being your moody, mysterious self and all, but Claire is missing her drawing lessons.”

Someone shoves past him roughly. He glares at them as they rush off, not bothering to apologize. “Harry's offered to pay for her to have actual lessons,” he continues. “You know, from like an actual professional, but she refuses to, only wants you. Now, this wouldn't be a problem except you aren't here. And you know, she's my daughter and I know I give Haz a lot of shit for spoiling her, but I'm just as bad and if you don't get your scrawny arse back her soon for Claire I will hunt you down myself and you won't like it.”

Stepping away from the building to go to his car parked across the street, he finishes with, “And you know that is a threat I will keep. Take care, Zayn. Be safe.”

He ends the call, glancing both ways to make sure there's no cars coming, pockets his phone and takes the first step toward his car.

Before his foot touches the ground there's a weird, muffled sound coming from his car and then it explodes, glass shattering and flying everywhere. There's a plum of fire and smoke coming up from it and the force of the explosion knocks Louis back. 

He lands on his back, shielding his face from ash, smoke and parts of his car falling all around him. His ears are ringing and car alarms from the cars around his are going off. People are screaming and running for cover. He struggles getting to his feet, dizzy and mouth dry as he stares at his car.

There are sirens going off in the distance, but he barely registers it, still staring at his car. There's barely anything left to it, just parts of the frame. It's literally in flames and Louis' only blinking at it.

It takes someone knocking into him to break him out of it. He turns, scrambling for his phone on the ground where he fell. The screen is cracked now, but he doesn't care. He quickly dials Harry's office, knowing he's in a meeting right now and won't answer his cell.

As soon as he hears the secretary answer the phone he rushes out, “I need to speak to Mr. Styles. Now.”

“I'm sorry, sir, but Mr. Styles is in a meeting and has instructed that-.”

“I need to speak to Harry now!”

“Again, I'm sorry, sir, but I can't allow that.”

“Listen, I don't care what he told you,” Louis hisses. “This is his husband and I need you to get him out of that meeting now.”

“Sir, I can't-.”

“Do you not hear the sirens?” he screams into the phone. “I need you to get Harry now and tell him it's an emergency. Like a Code Black emergency. I need him on the phone now!”

He hears her let out a breath. “I'm sorry, Mr. Tomlinson. I'll get right now.”

He hears her set the phone down and he lets out a breath. 

In a couple of days he'll feel bad for yelling at her. Ally has always been wonderful to him and Claire and he knows she was only doing what Harry instructed her to do, but right now he doesn't give a damn about her feelings being hurt.

It's only a couple seconds later that Harry picks up. “Louis? Lou? What's going on? You okay?”

“Harry. Harry, I need you to get Claire from school today.” His voice is shaky and his hands are shaking, can barely hold the phone. “I know it was my turn today, but I need you do it.”

“Louis, are those sirens? What's happening?” Harry's speaking quickly, hushed like he's trying to keep control of himself so no one knows something is wrong. “You said it was Code Black?”

When Louis and Harry decided to adopt Claire a few weeks into it Louis decided they needed to step of their security and precautions and in his mind that meant setting up codes. They have several, one for each situation that Louis could see happening. 

The only one they've used in the past was Code Blue and it ended up being nothing to worry about. Louis had been on his way home, Harry at work and Claire at school, and he thought someone was following him. He'd called Harry. Code Blue means there's a tiny situation that isn't all that dangerous yet, but stay away from home and get Claire while Louis deals with it.

They also have words and phrases to use in case they can't come right out and say what's happening, which again they've never used. 

Code Black is Louis' way of saying something very dangerous is happening and no one is safe. It might be a bit much for this situation, but his car has literally exploded as he was walking to it. An hour later and he and Claire would have been in the car on the way home.

Louis pinches at the bridge of his nose. “I was dropping the papers off at the lawyer's and on the way back to my car it exploded,” he says. “I don't know what's happening, but you need to leave work now, get your security and get Claire.”

The area has been surrounded now by officials, fire fighters working on putting out the flames. “Louis, are you okay?”

“I'm fine, just do what I say.”

“Louis, you need to calm down. This-.”

“Just get Claire!” he yells and he knows he must look ridiculous covered in ash and yelling into his phone while his car is on fire behind him. “Just make sure she's okay. Take her to the flat and stay there until I give you the okay.”

He hears Harry sigh. “Louis, this could have been an accident,” Harry says, voice soothing and calm. “Could've just been a problem with your car and you know that. Deep down you know that. I will get Claire and I will take her to the flat, but you need to calm down. Getting worked up isn't going to help.”

“I don't know what's happening, Harry,” he argues, running a hand through his hair. “My car _exploded_ in front of me and I don't know if Claire is okay. I have every right to panic!”

“I've had Ally call Claire's school,” Harry tells him slowly. “She's perfectly fine and they're getting her ready for me to get. Can you please stop and take a deep breath?”

Louis does, closing his eyes and breathing in slowly, letting the air fill up his lungs. He exhales just as slowly. It's not helped really, but Harry's got a point. Panicking is never good. 

“You need to get out of worried dad mode,” Harry continues. “And get into Louis Tomlinson mode, yeah? Can you do that?”

If the circumstances were different Louis would roll his eyes at Harry and tell him to fuck off, but Harry is right. Worried dad won't be able to deal with this properly, but Louis Tomlinson certainly can. It's just harder to separate those two at the moment, but he has to try.

“Yeah,” he breathes out. “I can do that.”

“Does anyone know who's car this is?” he hears someone yell.

“Good, good,” Harry says. “Thank you. Do you need me to call Niall?”

“Yes. Have him meet me at the house.”

“Okay. Now you deal with this and I'll go get Claire. Okay?” Louis nods, though Harry can't see him. “I love you. Be careful.”

“You be careful,” Louis mutters, then louder, he adds, “I love you more.”

He hears Harry let out a snort as he hangs up the phone. “Does _anyone_ know who's car this is?” the person yells again.

Louis closes his eyes, gathering himself. Quickly, he pockets his phone, opens his eyes and turns, holding a hand up. “It's mine!” he calls, walking toward his still flaming car and a group of officials.


	2. Life was Never Worse but Never Better

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They find out what's going on with Zayn and Louis and Claire have emotional breakdowns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I know I said earlier this was the last part, but I was writing on the last chapter for this and Louis has to make a pretty massive decision. Decision A was what I had planned, which would have ended the series. Decision B popped into my head and would not have ended the series. Somehow, I had to make Louis' decision. And I, instead of sticking with my original plan, chose Decision B. This will not be the end of the series. I have more.
> 
> Notice some tags have been added.
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated and if you want you can find me on tumblr at [thoughtlessblogger.](http://www.thoughtlessblogger.tumblr.com)
> 
> Thank you and enjoy!

“Do you want me to stay?”

When Louis had gotten home Niall had all ready been there, had all ready checked over the house and cleared it. Louis insisted he still needed to check for himself, had looked for any tiny thing to be out of place, but had found nothing out of the ordinary. Dog had seemed normal as well, bounding after him and Niall, drooling over everything. And when he'd declared the house was fine he'd given Harry the okay to come home.

He's been pacing, waiting for Harry and Claire to walk through the door, Niall watching him quietly and carefully from the corner of the room. He's still worked up, is anxious that he's missing something and Niall can definitely see that. Any other day, Louis would tell him to go home, but truthfully, he's thankful for Niall offering, needs someone else here.

“Yeah,” he admits softly.

“I'll need to go home and grab some stuff, but I can be here as long as you need me to be.”

Louis stops pacing, looking over at Niall. He's wearing those damn fake glasses again, frowning and it's not a good look on him. “Thanks, mate. I really do appreciate it.”

He hears the door open in the hall and Dog runs out of the room. It's a second later he hears the door shut and Harry's quiet, “Louis?”

“In here.”

Just seeing Harry round the corner, alive and well, relaxes him more than it probably should and he melts into Harry's embrace. “God, Louis,” Harry breathes into his hair. “You okay?”

Louis nods, can see Claire walking in over Harry's shoulder, frowning harder than Louis' ever see here. “Yeah.”

Harry pulls back, resting his hands on Louis' shoulders. “You sure? What happened?”

Claire rolls her eyes, throwing her backpack onto the sofa. His eyes flicker back to Harry and he steps back, asking, “Claire, you okay?”

The obvious answer is yes, physically she is okay, but Louis can tell something is wrong by the way she's holding herself, tense and maybe frustrated.

“You know, I know this doesn't happen often, but it's still annoying.” 

“It's for your fucking safety,” Louis snaps, immediately regretting it when Claire's eyes widen and Harry's head turns to him, lips pursed. He never snaps at Claire, never uses that kind of language with her and he feels like utter shit having done it now. 

“Yeah, well, maybe if you didn't put everyone in danger with your job,” Claire spits back at him with more venom than a nine year old should have. 

Ah, so she does know more than she lets on. 

“Claire!” Harry turns on her. “You don't speak to your father like that and you will-.” 

“She's right, Harry,” Louis says softly. “This is because of me.”

“That doesn't give her the right,” Harry argues, turning to him. “And you need to calm down too.” He turns back to Claire. “Apologize right now.”

Claire purses her lips and shakes her head. Louis can see Harry's jaw clench. “Go to your room,” he tells her. 

She sighs, but grabs her backpack and stomps out of the room. “And just sit there!” Harry yells after her. “Don't do a thing, but sit!”

“Oh, don't yell at her,” Louis says resigned as he lets himself fall back into the chair.

Harry turns, mouth open, ready to argue, but when he sees Louis his mouth snaps shut.

From the corner, Niall says, “Uh, I'm gonna go get some stuff from home and I'll be back.” When he gets in the doorway, he stops and turns to them. “You're okay, Louis,” he adds with a nod before walking out.

Once they hear the door open and close, Harry asks, “He's staying?”

“Yeah.”

“For how long?”

“He said as long as I need him too.”

“Good.” Harry crosses the room to the mini bar they have set up. 

There's the clink of glass and the sound of liquid being poured into the glass and then Harry's walking past him, handing him a drink. Louis takes it, downs half of it in one go, wincing slightly at the burn. Harry settles down on the sofa.

“You sure you're okay?” he asks, crossing his legs. “Want to talk about it?”

Louis sighs, leaning forward to set his drink on the table. He doesn't use a coaster, something Harry would normally yell at him because it leaves rings, but Harry doesn't even blink at it. “I don't know what happened,” he says, getting up and sitting next to Harry, curling into his side. Harry takes his own drink and sets it on the table, shifting so Louis can fit against him better. “I was on the phone, called Zayn finally. Bastard didn't pick up. And the next minute I was on the ground, my car in flames in front of me.”

“Did they say what caused it?”

Shaking his head, Louis tells him, “No. Won't know for sure for a while, but they said it was most likely an accident. Like a leak or something, I dunno. Not sure I believe that.”

“Of course you don't,” Harry states, rubbing a hand up and down Louis' arm. When Louis starts to protest, Harry says, “You're fine, Louis. You're okay. I'm okay and Claire is okay. We've taken the extra security precautions you wanted.”

“She needs to stay home for a couple of days.”

“I agree,” Harry says, nodding. 

After a moment of silence he adds, “You shouldn't have snapped at her.”

Louis starts to argue that he had every right to snap at her, but he knows Harry would reply that he's the adult and should've dealt with it calmly. However, that's not why Louis would argue. Claire has every right to be upset. She wasn't wrong in what she said.

“Don't do that,” Harry tells him, sitting up. 

Louis falls behind him a bit, catching himself with a hand on the cushion. “Do what?” he asks, pushing himself up in a sitting position. 

“Don't act like Claire was right in saying that.”

Harry gets up, starts walking out of the room. “She has a point, though,” Louis says, following after him. “You can't say she doesn't.” Harry doesn't respond as he walks through the house. “She should have been nicer about it, but still. It's a good point and there's really no way to be nice about it. This kind of thing doesn't happen to normal people.”

When they get in the kitchen Harry goes to the fridge and starts pulling food out, setting it on the worktop in an unorganized heap. “She is a normal person, Louis,” Harry argues, setting chicken breasts roughly down. “When something like this happens people take their kids out of school.”

“Car's exploding aren't a normal thing,” Louis points out, brow furrowed. Harry shuts the fridge, turning to the cupboard. “That doesn't happen to most people.”

“You're right,” Harry says, digging around for whatever spice he wants. “It doesn't happen to people that often. It's a freak accident, that's what people call them.” With spice in hand, he shuts the door to the cupboard and turns, placing the spice next to the chicken. “But it does happen and people panic.”

“But people don't panic for the same reason I panic,” Louis argues, pulling himself up to sit on one of the stools at the island. “They panic because it is a freak accident and it's the closest near death experience they'll probably ever have. I panic because it could be a freak accident, yeah, but it could also be someone coming after me for revenge or summat. Or they're coming after my family for revenge. Or it's someone like Howard and Rodman who have completely lost their minds.”

Harry's stopped gathering stuff and is standing opposite him, hands supporting his weight on the worktop. “I've been targeted before, Harry,” he continues. “I have the right to panic. I can't afford not to go straight to the worst case scenario. Most people would panic if their car exploded as they were about to pick up their child, yes, but don't you dare tell me Claire didn't have a point. Because she does.”

“Louis,” Harry says, frowning. “Maybe she did have a point, but she needs to understand that what you do is for her protection-.”

“Which she wouldn't need if it weren't for me,” Louis points out.

Harry's frown deepens before he sighs, grabbing the chicken. “Yeah, well her biological father put her in just as much danger, if not more,” he says turning around to wash the chicken off. “I never will understand why he thought putting his own address down was a good idea,” he adds quieter.

Changing the subject to Claire's biological father is a diversion technique. It's sort of a poor attempt at changing the subject, but Louis knows this is Harry's way of getting out of admitting that Louis is right. They both know Louis is right. All they can do is argue about it, but they'll never get anywhere. Harry knows that. Louis knows that. There's no sense in it.

The truth of it is, Louis is dangerous to be around because he's got a lot of enemies, a lot of people would like to see him dead. True, to most people he is dead, but it's still dangerous. He and Harry knew that. They definitely knew that when they agreed to adopt Claire.

Sometimes, though, Louis wonders how Harry really feels about it. If he blames Louis for the extra security, extra precautions, and paranoia and the actual danger that's hanging over their head every day threatening to envelop them at any minute. If Harry would blame him if something ever actually did happen. 

He must and he most likely would, Louis knows this and knows it would be better for Harry and Claire if he were to leave, but he's selfish and loves them too much. He won't leave unless Harry tells or asks him to. Harry will probably never do that, though, because he does love Louis regardless of this. 

Still, it's hard and Harry's got to have some sort of blame that he places on Louis. Harry will never say anything about it if there wasn't a problem, though, because he hates conflict, hates fighting with Louis, not that Louis would fight him on it, but Harry won't do it. He should probably call Harry out on it, go ahead and get it out of the way, but his selfishness wins out again.

He pushes himself off the stool, walks to Harry and places a hand on his lower back. “People do what they think they have to,” he says. “Now, what are you making? What can I do?”

Harry turns, raising an eyebrow. Louis smiles up at him and he sighs. “Chop up the celery and carrots, please.”

Louis nods, raising up to place a kiss on Harry's cheek. “You need to make sure there's enough for Niall,” he comments, earning a laugh from Harry. 

“We should probably buy more food actually. He'll eat everything you bought today.”

**

He's sitting in front of the fire when Harry comes in, wrapped in a blanket and sits next to him on the sofa. He doesn't say anything, just stares at the fire with him in silence. From the kitchen, Louis can hear Niall singing to Dog while he cooks. Apparently, Niall had gotten it in his head that while he was staying he was going to cook all the meals. None of them are complaining because Niall's a good cook, but Louis swears if he tries to sneak in one more traditional Irish dish he'll throw Niall into the pool.

“You've still not talked to Claire.” 

No, he hasn't. In the two days since his car exploded he's not said a word to Claire and she's not said a word to him. His feelings aren't hurt. At least that's what he told Niall and what he's insisted to Harry on multiple occasions. 

His feelings _are_ hurt. He knows she had every reason to be upset and was probably scared deep down and that's why she spoke out. She has every right be angry and scared, but hearing her say that hurt, which is funny because what she said is a watered down version of what he's thought himself. But hearing his daughter say something like that to him hurts more than most things he's been through.

He'd always hoped that she'd stay young enough that she wouldn't know that Louis was the reason behind the strict rules or where she can and can't go and the extra security they have at their house and why Louis never lets her out of his sight when they go out. He'd hoped she would never realize he was behind all that, but he _knew_ she would. He wasn't expecting it this soon. And yes, she's a child and shouldn't have spoken to him like that or said anything at all, but she doesn't deserve to be punished for it because it's the truth and they've always told her to be honest and not let something go unsaid if it needs saying.

But his feelings are hurt and she won't talk to him. Yesterday she wouldn't even acknowledge he was in the room. Not that he was much better. It's only because he doesn't know what to say to her. He can't just walk in and say, “You know what, Claire? You were right. I am the cause behind everything and it's dangerous me just being around you. How about some ice cream?” He can't do that because on a more logical level he knows he's doing the very best that he can to keep her safe. He does a lot more than she knows – a lot more than Harry knows even – but he can't tell her that.

There's a lot she's still too young to know and he can't really go in and explain to her the story because she wouldn't understand a lot of what he's telling her and some of it would probably scare her. He knows Harry's spoken to her, spent a couple hours talking to her yesterday, but Harry wouldn't say what they talked about, only told him to go in and talk to her himself.

He can't.

“I don't know what to say, Harry,” he replies, ducking his head.

“Well, you've got to say something because she thinks you hate her.” 

“I do not hate her!” he exclaims, turning to face Harry with a leg underneath himself.

Harry looks at him with wide eyes. “Tell her that.” 

“I really don't know what to say to her,” he admits. “She was right.” 

Biting his lip, Harry sighs. “You've got to figure it out because I can't deal with the both of you moping around,” he says. “I mean, it's okay for her because she's a child that thinks her father hates her, but you're an adult Louis. And I think-.”

“What if she hates me?” he asks, voice barely over a whisper.

Harry snaps his mouth closed, frowning. “She doesn't hate you, babe.”

“Feels like she does.”

“You snapped at her, something you never do, and she was scared. She didn't mean what she said.”

“Oh, don't tell me that,” Louis says, turning back to the fire and scooting to the edge of the sofa. “Yes I shouldn't have snapped at her, but she was right and there was a reason she said it, love. I'm not stupid.”

“I didn't say you were,” Harry says, scooting to the edge of the sofa. “She didn't mean to hurt your feelings.”

Louis notices Harry didn't say anything about her saying she wasn't right. He doesn't call him on it. “I'll talk to her eventually. I just have to figure out how.”

“You know how,” Harry tells him, placing a hand on his back and rubbing. “You're great with her. You're both just hurt right now and are second guessing how to interact with each other. You can both fix this.”

“Yo!” 

Louis and Harry turn to the doorway. Niall's standing there, wiping his hands on a towel, with Dog at his feet. His smile is bright, but his eyes are watching them closely.

“Food's done, dickheads,” he says. “Get in here.”

**

Dinner was awkward as hell, almost a carbon copy of yesterday's. Claire didn't speak to him, remained quiet through the whole thing. Louis didn't say much either. Niall and Harry talked a lot, trying to make up for both of their silence.

Louis' not used to this. He's not used to his daughter not talking to him and he's not used to not being able to talk to people, let alone his own daughter. Usually, even in the most tense of situations, he can find something to say, but he just cannot with his daughter.

Harry's right, though. He needs to talk to Claire and this can't go on much longer, so he softly knocks on her bedroom door. When he hears her muffled “Come in” he opens the door, sticking his head in.

She's sitting on her bed, crayons, markers, colored pencils and papers spread out around her. She's focused only on what she's currently drawing.

“Still want me to come in?” he asks.

Her head shoots up, eye wide and mouth popped open. She doesn't answer immediately, but when he raises his eyebrows she nods, making a place for him to sit on her bed.

He goes in, shutting the door behind him and sits in the spot she cleared. He doesn't say anything and she doesn't either, watching him closely as he tries several times to start a sentence, but fails.

Eventually she gets tired of waiting for him and sighs. “I'm sorry for what I said the other day, papa. Daddy said I shouldn't have said something I didn't mean and he's right.”

Louis' brow furrows at her words. He'll need to talk to Harry about that, but after this. “Yeah, but if you meant it you should tell me. I won't be angry.”

She bites at her lip, looking every where but him. And that's more than enough of an answer for him. “You did mean it,” he states and she immediately starts shaking her head.

“No, no. I just get scared sometimes,” she admits. “I know you and daddy worry a lot and I hear sometimes when you're arguing about it.”

Well, damn. 

Of course, she's heard them. It's not like they make sure she's on the other side of the house with twenty closed doors between them when they discuss this stuff. 

“We're not arguing when you hear us,” he tells her. “We're just discussing.”

“You get belligerent,” she replies.

Blinking at her slowly, he asks, “Belligerent? I do not get belligerent. Where'd you even learn that word?”

“Uncle Zayn,” she says, simply. “He said you and Uncle Niall get belligerent when you're upset and when you argue and I didn't know what it meant and he told me,” she explains like he should've known.

“Remind me to have a talk with Uncle Zayn,” he mutters, realizing Zayn's not answered his call. He clears his throat. “We're getting off track, baby.”

“I was scared,” Claire says again. “I know you and daddy keep things from me and I know it's for a reason, but I know it's got to do with your job and I get scared sometimes.”

Louis bites at his top lip to keep from interrupting her and to keep from tearing up. “And Molly's dad worked for the police and he got shot and I'm scared.”

“What happened to Molly's dad?” he asks even though he's dreading the answer because this seems to be part of the problem here and he needs to know.

“He died,” Claire answers. “I know what you do involves guns and a lot of secrets and I know you're worried a lot that someone will come for us and it scares me because I want you and daddy to be okay,” she continues. “I don't want you to die,” she adds with watery eyes.

He has to turn away, squeezing his eyes shut to stop the tears and bites at his lip again. She knows a lot more than he'd thought and he wonders if this is what her and Harry talked about the other day. And if it is how Harry dealt with it because his way has got to be a hell of a lot better than whatever Louis' about to come up with.

“Claire, honey,” he says, turning back to her. “Your daddy and I are okay. I do worry about your safety, but every parent worries and yeah I do have to deal with dangerous situations, but I'll always come home. You hear me?” He ducks down so he can look her in the eyes. “I will always come home to you, okay? You don't have to worry about me. I'll be okay and so will daddy. And you'll be okay. You want to know how I know that?”

She nods, sniffling. “Because we will be,” he tells her. “Because we're a family and we love each other. And I mean, I am good at what I do, so you know, I'll be fine.” That gets a little giggle out of her. “Your uncles are here too. They'll protect you, like they protect me when I need it. And I promise you that any time you need me, no matter how big you get or how independent you are, if you need me, even if it is just to open a jar or kill a spider or beat someone up for you, I will be there. Because I love you a lot, Claire.”

At this point he's very close to crying, his voice wavering a bit. Claire looks up at him, eyes wide and tears spilling down her face. “You're not mad at me?” When he shakes his head, she asks, “You don't hate me?” 

“Of course not,” he chokes out. “I love you. Don't ever doubt that and I will _always_ love you. I'd do anything for you, Claire.”

“I love you, papa,” Claire manages to say, throwing herself at him. She wraps her arms around him, burying her face into his stomach. “I'm sorry for what I said.”

“I'm sorry for snapping at you,” he says, pulling her to him more. “And promise me that if you are ever scared or upset you'll come talk to me or daddy. Or one of your uncles, but they're not good with emotions.”

He's not either, but it gets a laugh and Harry's not here to call him out on it. “Promise,” Claire mumbles into his shirt.

“Good,” he says, sniffing and blinking hard a couple times. “Now, tell me, what are you drawing?”

Claire pulls away from him, grabbing the stacks of papers she's got and starts explaining what each thing is. They're quite good, but Louis' doesn't know a thing about art and anything his little girl draws would be a masterpiece to him. Regardless, it is good for a kid. No where near Zayn's level, but he can definitely see his influence in her drawings. 

It's sometime later when Harry comes looking for them. Claire's long passed out, curled into his side as he's propped up against the headboard. He's been going over everything she said to him, doing his best to not wake her up. Louis' never been a loud crier, but in the quiet of her bedroom it's loud and he'd been trying to not to, but everything that's happened is almost too much.

He was stressed to begin with, but now-. Well, he'd thought he'd been doing a good job keeping Claire away from his shit, but he was wrong and she knows a lot more than he'd like and it's affecting her in ways a child should never be affected in. He doesn't know what to do or how to handle it, so silently crying while he holds her while she sleeps is how he's going to deal.

Harry seems to be pitying him as he stands in the doorway, watching with a small frown.

“Stop standing there like a creep,” Louis says, careful to keep his voice quiet, wiping the tears off his face. “It's unsettling.”

“Thought it would be creepy,” Harry replies just as quietly with a small smile. “You two make up?” he adds when Louis doesn't react.

“What do you think?”

“You okay then?”

“No.”

“Want to talk about it?”

“I'd rather just stay here, to be honest,” he says.

Harry nods. “Want me to stay or go?”

“You think you can go?” he asks. “Kind of just want to stay here and think.”

Harry watches him for a long moment, before nodding. “Sure, Lou,” he says, grabbing the door knob. “I'll be in the library if you need me.”

He shuts the door and another tear rolls silently down his cheek.

**

It's been a week and nothing has happened. Claire's gone back to school, Harry's back at work, Niall is back at home and Louis' got a rental car despite Harry arguing that he could use one of his. He would, but all of Harry's cars are too flashy and Louis wants to stay as inconspicuous as possible.

He's still jumpy, albeit not as bad as he was earlier in the week. He's only left the house to take Claire to and from school and to pick some food up. He can't handle being out too long for fear someone will spot him. Harry's tried convincing him to go a holiday, that Claire could use one too, but it won't help. He'd still not be able to relax.

It's not like he expects something to happen, for someone to jump out at him and attack or for Claire to be bothered because it's actually very unlikely given the circumstances. He'd gotten an update about his car, seems it's looking more and more like a leak of some sort, which means no one was trying to off him or warn him. Harry says he should be able to relax now, but he's still can't.

He doesn't know why, can't pinpoint an exact reason, and maybe that's what's bothering him because there's no exact reason behind it. That it was just chance that his car blew up. Maybe there's a part of him that doesn't believe that it was chance, that it was set up.

Dog's sitting next to him, drooling even as she sleeps, as he strokes her down the back and when his phone starts ringing her ear twitches, but she just turns over and starts snoring.

“Weird dog,” he mutters, grabbing his phone. He can't decide if it's a good thing Liam is calling or not. “Hey.”

“Lou, you need to hurry up and get here. I got through the encryption.” 

Louis snorts. “It can't possibly be that bad,” he says because Liam has a tendency to overreact.

“It's Zayn.”

Sitting up straight, jostling Dog as he does so, he asks, “What do you mean?”

“Just get your arse over here and call Niall.”

**

“What the hell is going on?” he asks, coming through the door of Liam's computer room.

Liam's sitting at the deck, typing away as he chews on his bottom lip. Niall's pacing the room, hands clasped behind his back, but when he sees Louis he stops. “No idea, mate. He won't say a thing,” he says, gesturing over to Liam, who hasn't looked up from the computer.

As Louis walks past Niall, they share a worried look. “Liam, mate,” he says, going to sit in Liam's second desk chair. “What's happening?”

“It wasn't a bunch of files,” he starts. “It was just one, a video to be more exact. And I won't bore you with the details of actually breaking the encryption.”

“Thanks for that,” Niall snorts.

“It's, uh, it's not good,” Liam continues, clicking around. “I probably shouldn't even show you. It was bad enough the first time, but you won't understand if I don't.”

Niall comes up to stand between them, hands resting on both chairs as he leans down to watch the video Liam starts.

Immediately, Louis gets a sinking feeling in his stomach. It begins in a darkly lit room, a man in a chair with a sack over his head. His clothes are dirty, soaked through with sweat and possibly blood. When a man walks into frame and pulls off the sack, revealing a beaten up, barely conscious Zayn, Louis' hardly surprised. Still, he claps a hand over his mouth, eyes widen as he leans forward.

The man who'd walked into frame says something in Spanish, but the audio is too distorted for Louis to make out completely. Zayn replies and the man punches Zayn in the jaw. His head jerks back and fresh blood is in the corner of his mouth as he tries to hold his head up as the man walks off frame.

Louis hears the man say something else. Zayn stays quiet this time and the man comes back into frame holding a hot branding iron. Louis watches in horror as the man presses it to Zayn's left pectoral. Zayn holds in his scream, but the man presses it deeper and a strangled scream escapes Zayn's mouth. Another man comes in then holding a hammer. He says something to Zayn, but he only shakes his head and the man lifts the hammer and-.

“It just keeps going from there,” Liam says, exiting out quickly. “It's gets a hell of a lot worse and I'm pretty sure Zayn might have a few broken bones in his arm.”

“You think?” Louis asks, turning to him.

“Think I'm gonna be sick,” Niall mumbles, pressing a hand to his mouth.

Louis watches him as he walks away, to the other side of the room, hands on hips and head bent. “I don't understand,” Louis says, turning back to Liam. “What the fuck was that?”

Pushing away from the desk, Liam says, “I tried enhancing the audio to see if I could make out what they were saying, but it's no use. Audio is shot.”

“Yeah, I'm not concerned about that.”

“This video has to be at least a month old,” Niall comments, turning back to them. “What are the chances he's still alive?”

“Quite good, actually,” Liam says. “While I was waiting for you two I was able to look into this a bit. Zayn's being held in Gauntanamo.”

“Those damn Americans,” Louis mutters. “Thought he was in Peru, though.”

Liam nods. “He was. I still don't know why, but he was. He got into some trouble, though, which is actually where I think this video came from. Somehow, a couple weeks ago he popped up in Gauntanamo's database with no explanation as to why he's there.”

“What are we gonna do?”

“Well, we can't just leave him,” Niall says. 

“No, I know,” Louis tells him. “I'm asking what the plan is.”

Liam meets his eyes. “We'll plan on the way.”

**

Louis' not sure if Harry was relieved or not when Louis told he had to go. If he was relieved it's only because it's getting Louis out of the house to actually do something substantial. He'd even made a few jokes before Louis told him why he was going. Harry had gotten serious then, telling him to get Zayn the fuck home alive. Louis didn't promise anything.

The thing about Gauntanamo Bay detention camp is that it's located inside the American Naval Base and it's quite hard to gain access in and out. It had taken quite a lot of planning on how to get in, get Zayn and get out.

On the plane to over Liam had been reading up on the base and prison. His “Did you know the prison camp was established to detain extraordinarily dangerous people, to interrogate detainees in an optimal setting, and to prosecute detainees for war crimes?” Louis' response had been that yes he had known that and it begged the question as to how Zayn ended up there. Niall's little addition that he'd thought the US government had closed it hadn't added anything other than an argument over why Niall had thought that. Turns out, the government had wanted to and tried, but for several reasons had not actually gone through with closing it.

Liam had been able to find out that Zayn was being held in Camp 7, which makes no sense because that's where they usually keep high-security detainees formerly held by the CIA. Unfortunately, the location of this facility is classified. Fortunately, they have Liam. He'd been able to hack the US government's military files and gotten the location.

The plan itself seems simple enough. It's a simple “get in, get target and get out”, but the getting in was hard for them to figure out. Thank god for Niall and his ability to imitate accents. Niall is going in as CIA Special Agent Peters, has concocted an explanation as to why he needs to speak to Malik. Liam will be his quiet and brooding ethics lawyer. And Louis' driving the getaway car.

Niall and Liam had both been in agreement that it was too dangerous for Louis to go in. He'd agreed and had been set up with the fake identity of Special Agent Peters' assistant. 

They'd managed to get into the base without a problem and Niall and Liam were taken into Camp 7 immediately, surrounded by six people. So, while Niall and Liam rescue Zayn he's sitting in the car, not knowing what's happening because Liam didn't want to risk having bugs on them, trying to come up with a connection with all of this.

So far he's been unsuccessful. The identity of the man who gave him the USB is still unknown and his connection to Zayn is as up in the air as Harvey's connection with this. The man warned him about Harvey, but Louis can't see a clear connection between it all. And he's throwing his car exploding in the mix because he's still not sure that was an accident.

Still, he can't come up with a link between any of it and it's frustrating him more. Truth be told, he could probably focus on it more at any other given time, but Niall and Liam have been inside for close to an hour now and he's see no sign of them coming out, with or without Zayn.

Just as he's convinced himself it's gone wrong, off in the distance, he sees Niall and Liam. Liam's half carrying a conscious Zayn. Conscious being the operative word. He may look it, but he doesn't really seem with it, like the smallest of breeze could knock him over. One arm is in a cast and sling, so Liam was probably right about it being broken.

They're walking slowly, due to Zayn's condition probably, but Louis' getting antsy, glancing around to make sure no one has spotted them. It's a miracle no one has yet. There's more patrol here than Louis' ever seen.

When they're close to the car, Louis gets out, opening the boot. Niall stays a ways off, watching for someone to see them and Liam brings Zayn over. Zayn's mumbling incoherently as Louis grabs his legs and helps Liam put him in the boot.

“Sorry, buddy, but what's a little more psychological damage?” Louis mutters, shutting it. “I swear if they stop and look in there I'm just gonna shoot everyone,” he tells Liam, pointing at him before getting back in the car. 

Liam and Niall join him quickly and Louis' got the car moving as soon as their doors are shut. They're all silent as Louis drives them through the base and out of it. He holds his breath going through the gate for fear they'll stop him, lets it out in a long breath when they get through with just a wave from the gate operator.

“How long before they notice he's gone, you think?” Louis asks when they're about twenty minutes away.

Niall shrugs. “We knocked out everyone we came across, but I'm thinking any time now.”

“You know, I've done a lot of things in my life, but this is probably the most criminal thing I've ever done,” Liam comments, moodily staring out the window.

Louis ignores him knowing damn well that Liam's statement applies to them all.

**

Ideally, getting off the island and as far away from Cuba as possible would be have been the plan, but Zayn's condition was far from being able to travel all the way back to London. They're not even sure he could've gone on a plane from Cuba to Miami, so they drove two hours to Banes to a shitty flat with an even shittier view. Banes is on the coast of the island and he would've thought that would have meant they'd get a view of the ocean. They did not. Their flat's windows face the street, except for the one window in room they've given Zayn. It looks out over a little park.

The flat only has two bedrooms and it wasn't hard to decide that Zayn got one all to himself during his recovery. Two would take the second bedroom, while one keeps watch. It's a routine they've got going, have had going for four days now.

Zayn hasn't woken up. Well, he's been awake a couple of times, but only for a couple minutes while he mumbles a bunch of shit they don't understand and can't make sense of. Niall says it's normal for him to do this and probably won't remember any of it when he finally wakes up for good. Louis thinks that's a bunch of crap, but Niall's the one who has medical experience. Medical experience he still refuses to explain, but it helps in times like this.

He's got Zayn on pain killers because his arm is still healing from what he thinks is a shattered Ulna. Niall also thinks Zayn's got a couple cracked ribs and is treating him for that, as well as treating him for the multiple burns and malnutrition. Zayn's not in good shape, but each day he gets better.

Niall's sleeping right now since he was on watch last night, Liam's out getting food and seeing if he can find out any information on what the US government knows, so Louis' decided to hang out in the chair next to Zayn's bed. He's been in here for close to an hour, is almost falling asleep and he nearly misses it when Zayn's fingers start twitching.

Louis sits up straight, leaning toward the bed, watches as Zayn's face scrunches up while he shifts. “Oh god,” he groans after a minute. “Fuckin' 'urts.”

“Well, I should say so,” Louis comments. “You looked like you'd been through a garbage disposal.”

Zayn's eyes finally open, blinking several times to focus. “I couldn't have woken up to someone else?”

“Liam's getting food and Niall's sleeping. You're stuck with me.” Zayn takes a deep breath, wincing, and tries sitting up. Niall's got his arm in better cast and in a sling, so Zayn can't move much on his own. “Seriously, though, how are you feeling?”

“Could you help me, Louis?” 

Zayn's frowning over at him, still struggling to sit up. It'd be almost funny to watch if he didn't look so pathetic right now. Louis stands, wrapping his arms around Zayn so he's got a hand on either side and helps him get in a sitting position. After he's got a couple pillows behind his back, Louis sits back down.

“Are you going to stay awake this time?”

“What do you mean?” Zayn asks, brow furrowed.

“You've been awake a couple times, muttering a bunch of shit none of us understood,” Louis tells him. “I think at one point you were speaking in German. That was interesting.”

Zayn coughs out a laugh, grabbing at his chest when he does. “In all seriousness, though, Louis, I am very glad to see you.”

“Same here. You owe my daughter about thirty drawing lessons and an explanation as to why you've been ignoring her.”

His eyes widen slowly. “Shit. I didn't mean to ignore Claire. I-.”

“Zayn, mate, relax. I was mostly joking.”

“Bastard.”

“You lo-.”

“Louis, has Zayn shown any signs of-. Oh.” Niall stops halfway in the room, brows raised. “You're up. You're speaking in English I hope.”

Zayn glances between the two of them before saying, “I hate you both.”

“We saved your arse. You should be thanking us.”

“Ah, yes, Louis,” Zayn says turning to him. “Let me thank you for taking close to three months to find me.”

Louis snaps his mouth shut, any reply he was about to say lost. Zayn's mouth twitches at the corner. “That was for the Claire comment, you jerk.”

“Hey!” Louis protests, leaning forward to slap at Zayn's shoulder lightly.

“Jerk?” Niall questions, sitting on the edge of the bed. “That's a lame insult, bro.”

“Hey, why's everyone in here. I thought-. Oh, hi, Zayn.”

Liam walks in, foodless and cheery, sitting opposite Niall on the bed. “I got food,” he says. “But a rather big, rabid looking dog stole it just outside the building.”

Niall tilts his head, frowning. “So, no food?” When Liam nods, he adds, “Did you get any information, at least?”

“Not really,” Liam says, shaking his head. “It seems the US government wants to keep this as secret as possible. They don't want people knowing that a prisoner, someone they'd deemed a possible terrorist, was able to escape from Guantanamo. Doesn't look good for them.”

“Is that where I was?” Zayn asks, confusion clear. “Thought I was still in Peru?”

Liam shares a worried glance with Louis. “We think you started out there,” he says. “And at some point you were moved to Guantanamo. I was never able to figure out why. We were hoping you could tell us that.”

“I, uh, I don't really remember,” Zayn says, scratching at his beard. “I was targeting a drug lord in Lima. Normally, I wouldn't do that and I shouldn't have, but he had a painting I wanted and I thought while I was trying to get it maybe I could find something on him that would actually get him arrested. I'm not sure how, but they figured me out. I don't remember much, was drugged most of the time, but I think-.”

He cuts himself off, glaring down at his lap. “I think I remember someone saying something to me about Harvey.”

Louis shifts uncomfortably in his seat, making eye contact with Niall. Niall raises an eyebrow at him and Louis nods. 

“Zayn, um, we actually wanted to ask you about this,” Niall starts, clearly unsure if they should. “Louis was on a job in America and someone found him and we're still not sure who it was, but he told Louis that Harvey was planning something bad and that he was going to try to blame it on the two of us.”

“He also gave me a USB,” Louis adds. “It was encrypted and I called Liam in to help.”

“When I was finally able to break it I found a video of what looked like an interrogation,” Liam says, not meeting Zayn's eyes. “It was you in the video and I couldn't tell what was being said, but they were being very rough with you.”

“And, anyway, now we're here,” Niall finishes. “None of this makes sense. Oh! And Louis' car exploded, but that may not be connected at all.”

Zayn stays silent, brow furrowed. When it becomes clear he isn't going to say anything, Niall asks, “You think Harvey had something to do with this?”

“I don't see how,” Liam says. “I don't think he has any sort of jurisdiction in Peru or Guantanamo, not with this sort of thing.”

“Zayn had to end up in Guantanamo somehow,” Niall points out.

Louis can tell Liam and Niall are gearing up for an argument, even though there's nothing to really argue about here and he can tell that Zayn's clearly uncomfortable with this, whether it's because he can't remember or because he does, Louis can't be sure. He also looks exhausted, eyes half lidded as he listens.

Clearing his throat, Louis says, “Harvey can't be trusted. Never could be. We'll look into it, but let's drop it for now, okay?”

They nod, immediately shutting up and Zayn sends him a thankful smile, saying, “Now, tell me, how's Claire doing?”

**

“I guarantee he weasels his way out of giving us an answer of any kind,” Louis comments, pulling open the door to the Interpol office.

“Of course he will,” Niall agrees, pulling off his aviators. “It's not like he's trustworthy or anything.”

Louis' mouth is pressed into a thin line as they bypass Harvey's assistant or secretary – Louis' never been sure what the man is – and fling the door to Harvey's office open. Harvey startles as the door bangs off the wall, dropping his pen on his desk. When he looks up and sees the two of them standing in the doorway, he calms, picking his pen up and looking back down.

“Ah, Mr. Hoarn, Mr. Tomlinson, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Cut the pleasantries,” Niall says, shutting the door behind him. “What happened with Malik?”

Harvey looks up, blinks, says, “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Sure you do,” Louis says, rounding the desk. He turns Harvey's chair around and leans down, hand on the armrest. “My friend was being tortured for information, seemingly about you, and then ended up in Guantanamo. You want to try telling me again that you don't know what we're talking about?”

“Mr. Tomlinson,” Harvey starts, “if your intention was to come in here with intimidation tactics to scare me into admitting to something then I'm afraid you're out of luck.” He picks Louis' hand up off the armrest and lets go so it falls to his side. “I'm not intimidated by either of you and I know nothing.”

Niall crosses his arms, leaning against the door. “Like we believe that,” he scoffs. “Zayn says these people asked about you. And we want to know why.”

“Well, coming in here, demanding answers I don't have won't get you anywhere, boys,” Harvey says, pointedly looking between them. “It seems Mr. Malik got _himself_ into trouble. I know nothing about it and had nothing to do with it.” He stands, wiping at his mouth. “And I'm not too happy about the two of you coming in here and accusing me of whatever it is you're accusing me of.”

Louis bites at the inside of his cheek. It's not like they were expecting anything and truth be told this is most likely going to make things worse for them, but it's still a tad disappointing that they're not getting any information.

“So if you are done,” Harvey continues, adjusting his tie, “I have work to be doing and I'd appreciate it if I was left alone to do it.”

Niall nods infinitesimally, already turning to the door. Louis steps close to Harvey, jaw clenched. With a lowered voice he says, “My friend went through hell and somehow your name is connected to it. I don't know how or why, but I will find out and if I find out you were directly linked to this you better run.”

Harvey stares him down, doesn't flinch, only breathes as Louis steps back and walks toward the door. Niall opens it and walks out. Louis follows after, pausing in the doorway to say, “Have a good day, Agent Harvey,” with a fake smile on his face.

Neither of them say anything until they're on the lift. “I don't trust a word he said back there.”

Louis turns slightly to Niall. “Nothing he's ever said has been trustworthy. This isn't surprising. And of course he was lying. Every classic sign was there. Adjusting his tie, covering up his mouth.”

“I know. I just wish something could be easy for once,” Niall says. “Like for once I'd like the bad guy to come to us, declare what the evil plan is and then let us catch 'em right then and there. I don't think it's too much to ask.”

“Yes, well,” Louis starts, grinning over at him, “where's the fun in that?”

The lift doors open and Louis walks out. Niall follows after him, saying, “There'd be plenty of fun there. I could go on an earlier holiday or you know, stay at home and sleep. I'm not picky.”

When they get to the door, Louis pulls it open, allowing Niall to go through first. “Aren't we technically the bad guys, though?”

Louis follows through the door as Niall looks over his shoulder, saying, “We are, but we're not the worst.”

Louis shrugs one shoulder, lips pursed. “That's for sure.”

**

As much as Louis doesn't trust Harvey and as much as he doesn't want to carry out any more jobs for him, he's afraid if he doesn't the consequences will be unbearable. Harvey has the power to put him in prison and god only knows what he could do to Harry and Claire. Not that Louis has to worry too much about Harry. He's a pretty powerful guy as well and he can take care of himself, not that Louis thinks Harvey would do anything to physically harm Harry, but it's Claire he worries about since she's only a child and Louis will do anything to keep her safe.

Going into Harvey's office and demanding answers was risky enough, but now he knows they're on to him, which will either make him sloppy or rush what he's planning. There's a chance nothing will change at all, but they're hoping. Still, accusing him was a risky move, which is why Louis isn't saying no to jobs. If he starts saying no, Harvey will really know something is up and Louis' not prepared to deal with the retribution from that.

He's just come back from another job, has already had his meeting with Harvey, who acted like nothing had happened at all between them. The job had been easy enough. It'd been in America, a fact that Louis had snorted at. He was only gone for a week this time, simple get in, get confidential financial information from another politician – this time a representative from Kentucky – and get out. 

There were no complications at all and despite everything that's happened the past couple of months he's really happy and excited to be home. He can't wait to see his family – honestly he can't wait to see Dog, he complains about her a lot, but he loves her just as much as Harry and Claire. It's late, already dark and Claire's probably all ready in bed, but maybe he can convince Harry to let him wake her up.

He realizes it's been a long time since he's felt this okay about, which is utterly ridiculous because Zayn's still recovering from what happened, he trust Harvey even less, and he's worried about how Claire is reacting to every thing he says and does. It's odd feeling this way and in the back of his mind he can't help but worry that something is about to happen.

As he's coming up to their house he notices smoke – a lot of it, mixed with flames – and his heart stops. He starts driving slower, eyes narrowed because it may not be their house, but the closer he gets the more undeniable it is.

He parks the car in the street, watches as the right side of his house burns. It's impossible to see anything, to see if Harry and Claire are okay, but he can't move. He's having a hard time breathing, flashes of his childhood home burning to the ground with his family inside. He should have been there with his family and he should have been with his family tonight. 

Years ago his family died in fire like this, while they were sleeping, and Louis hadn't been there. He's always blamed himself for it, has always thought that he should have been there because then maybe he could've done something to save them, but he wasn't.

It's that thought that makes him move, the fact that Harry and Claire could still be in there. He jumps out of his car, runs to the gate. Surprisingly, since his hands are shaking so badly, it only takes him one try to get the code in. It's torture, waiting for the gate to open and when it's open enough for him to squeeze his body through, he does, starts running toward the house because there's no sign Harry and Claire are out.

“Harry!” he yells. And he knows it's stupid, but when he doesn't hear Harry answer he makes the decision to run into his burning house. His family died once in a fire, he's not going to let it happen again without doing something to try to stop it.

“Claire!”

He's almost to the house now and he knows he's got tears streaming down his face and he thinks he might hear Dog barking somewhere but he can't figure out where she's at, so he keeps running.

“Harry!”

Just as he's reaching the porch, someone grabs him from behind. Strong arms are wrapped around him, pulling him away from the house. They're saying something to him, but he can't make it out as he struggles to get free, mind only focused on getting Harry and Claire out of the house.

“Louis! Lou! Please stop! Louis!”

He's struggling so much that he causes them to fall. He lands on his attacker, elbow in the gut, causing them to release their grip on him. He leaps up, starts to run back toward the house, but the man – he's assuming it's a man – is just as quick, jumping up and grabbing him again.

“Louis! Stop it!”

The person spins him around so they're facing each other and pulls him close. Louis' head is pressed against the man's chest as he continues to thrash around, trying to get free. He's mumbling things to himself that even he doesn't understand.

“Louis, I'm right here. I'm okay.”

He just needs to get Harry and Claire out and everything will be fine.

“I am Harry. I'm okay, Louis.”

It takes him minute to realize the voice sounds familiar and he stops fighting as much. It takes him another minute to realize that he knows this body, knows this person holding on to him, murmuring to him softly now. It takes him much longer than he'd care to admit to realize that it's Harry.

Harry is alive and holding him tightly, hand rubbing his back, the other cupping the back of his neck. He's slightly swaying them back and forth as he continues to repeat that he's okay and “Calm down, Louis, please” into his ear.

The tears that had been falling come faster now as he wraps his arms around _Harry_. He has a hard time believing it's Harry at first, but it's his voice and definitely his body pressed almost impossibly close to Louis' and Louis melts into him, clinging to him and getting his shirt wet with his tears because Harry's alive.

It takes him another second before his eyes snap open and he pulls away from Harry as much as he can. “Claire! Where is she? Is she okay? Where is-.”

“She's okay, Louis,” Harry rushes out, pulling him back to him. “She's fine. We got out and she's fine. She's with Dog.”

For a moment he almost doesn't believe Harry, but he hears Dog bark and she's definitely outside, closer than she was before and he can hear Claire calling out, “Papa” and he finally lets himself relax. Lets himself sink deeper into Harry, squeezing his eyes shut because as happy as he is that they're okay an as much as he wants to grab Claire and never let her go she doesn't need to see him like this. She doesn't need to see him near hyperventilation, basically in hysterics.

Harry's continuing to speak to him, repeatedly telling him that they're okay, and continues to hold him. Eventually, he has to pull himself together, so he pulls his head away from Harry's chest, wiping at his tears quickly so Claire won't see.

“Papa!”

He pulls away from Harry completely, turning to Claire. He crouches down, holding his arms open and she runs into him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Hey, baby girl, you okay?”

She nods, clinging on tighter as he stands. She's grown more in the past couple of months and he probably shouldn't be holding her like this. “You're okay,” he tells her, turning to Harry. The house is still burning behind him, Dog has shut up now. “What happened?”

“I don't know,” Harry says, running a hand through his hair. “I really don't. She'd gone to bed and I was in my office finishing up some work. I heard Dog start barking and then I smelled smoke. Next thing I know the alarm is going off and the house was on fire.”

“Why didn't you answer me when I called?” 

It sounds snappier than he meant it and he immediately feels bad when Harry's brows raise. “I did,” he says. “The only way we could get out was through the back. I heard you yelling and I did yell back, but you either didn't hear me or-.”

He cuts himself off, features immediately softening. “Lou, were you-.”

“Yes,” he says curtly, cutting Harry off knowing that he was going to ask if Louis was having flashbacks to the fire his family died in. He definitely was, but Harry knows he doesn't like to talk about that time and even if it did affect how he dealt with this tonight, he still won't talk about it.

“We're okay,” Harry tells him slowly, coming up and hugging him and Claire and Louis almost lets himself believe it.

**

It's weird being back here, being in this flat where Zayn came to him almost twelve years ago with a job targeting a very young, very attractive businessman for his. Louis' been here many times since then, kept it even after he and Harry moved in together because safe house is always a good idea. It's where Harry is supposed to take Claire in an emergency and because of that reason the place has plenty of their clothing and anything they might have needed from home.

The fire destroyed pretty much the whole right side of the house. The security office is gone, the dining room and lounge were destroyed as well as the two guest rooms upstairs, not to mention the damage down to that side of their garden. The fire marshal isn't sure what started the fire, but it definitely wasn't something in the kitchen. He'd suggested it was one of their fireplaces, but Harry swears the only one that was on was the one in his office.

There's no clear cause behind it, but even the fire marshal seemed perplexed and had admitted it might have been arson. The problem with that is the gate hadn't been opened and none of the security cameras picked up anything. Louis knows there's ways around this, but even still Dog would have noticed and alerted Harry to someone's presence. The security footage did clarify that the fire had started in the lounge, where there is a fireplace.

Louis, regardless of the fire marshal telling him it was most likely a problem with the fireplace, has convinced himself someone is trying to hurt him and/or his family. Harry thinks he's being ridiculous, but once Louis pointed out his car exploding Harry had shut up quickly.

He's been short with Harry because he's not been sleeping due to his nightmares about his mother and sisters and Harry and Claire dying in the fire and he's worried. He's been short with Claire, too, but he's better able to control it with her. Still, he's worried – he's _scared_ – that this is more than what Harry thinks it is. He's scared he's right and he's convinced Harvey has something to do with it.

Unfortunately, Harvey has an alibi for the time of the fire. He was with Niall, discussing the possibility of sending him to Canada for a job. It rules out Harvey being involved firsthand, but he still could have had someone do it for him.

Also, unfortunately, since half the house was destroyed they have to stay here for the next couple months while their house is repaired. It's not a hardship to stay here. Yes, it's smaller than their house with fewer amenities, but it's nice and as far as Louis knows there are still very few people who know about it.

Another unfortunate thing is that, while Louis firmly believes his car exploding and the house catching fire are some sort of attack on him, Harry isn't so sure so he's still going to work and taking Claire to school every morning. They'd argued about quite a bit until Louis just couldn't do it anymore. 

Harry won that argument and Louis' suffering because of it. During the day, while Harry and Claire are gone, he can't relax. He knows he's driving Dog crazy because he can't sit still and she's taken up watching them all like hawk since the fire. She stays with Claire at night, sleeping with her head propped on Claire's stomach, drooling. She keeps following Louis from room to room while he paces. If he stays in one room for more than a couple of minutes she'll lie down to start to sleep, but he never stays long and as soon as he's out of the room, she lets out a loud breath through her nose and follows.

“If you've been pacing like this it's no wonder Dog is upset,” Zayn comments when he comes in from the hall. “It's driving _me_ crazy.”

Louis stops, looking over at him. He's sitting in the armchair, legs crossed, drink in hand. His arm is still in the cast, still in the sling, but the rest of him looks close to normal. He's picked up weight and he's shaved his beard and he's watching Louis intently, eyes narrowed and one eyebrow cocked.

“Sorry,” Louis sighs, running his hands down his face as he goes to sit on the sofa. “I just can't relax,” he adds, resting his arms on his knees. “I can't sleep either.”

“Nightmares?” Louis nods. Zayn opens his mouth, closes it, then says, “Mate, maybe you should try talking to someone. Like a professional or summat.”

“Nah, it won't help,” he says, rubbing at the spot over his eye. “It won't take the worry away.”

Dog hops up beside him on the sofa, laying down, but she keeps her eyes open, watching him in case he gets up. “Can I ask you something, Louis? What are you afraid is going to happen?”

“I don't know,” he admits, sighing. “I don't think any particular thing is going to happen. I'm just scared something will.”

“What's Harry say?”

“Harry, thinks I'm being overprotective, paranoid, suspicious, overbearing, among other things.”

“He has to admit there's something weird going on.”

Louis lean back. “He does, but he doesn't think-. I don't know what he thinks.”

“Maybe he's-.”

Zayn's cut off by Louis' phone ringing. When he picks it up he can't figure out if he wants to smile or start for the door. “Speak of the devil,” he says, answering the call. “Harry.”

“Louis.” 

With just Harry saying his name he can hear the panic in Harry's voice and he sits up straight. “What's happened?”

Zayn sits up to, setting his drink on the coffee table.

“I was waiting for Claire to come out of school and she never did, so I went in and no one had seen her,” Harry rushes out. 

“Okay,” he draws out.

“Louis, do you not hear what I'm saying? God, you were right. I should have listened to you. I should've listened and now Claire is gone.”

It's not until he hears those three words come out of Harry's mouth that he's had nightmares about for years that he realizes what's happening. _Claire is gone_.

“What do you mean she's gone?” he demands, jumping off the sofa. “She can't be gone, Harry.”

“Well, it's not like I'd make it up,” Harry snaps. “She's not here. They said someone came and got her earlier and I really don't understand that. We're the only ones authorized to get her out of school. Us and the lads and they said it wasn't Liam or Zayn.”

“Zayn's with me,” Louis tells him. “I know it wasn't him. Wait. Did they not say anything about Niall?”

Harry takes a breath, exhaling loudly on the other end. “They said he did, but, Louis, I don't think he did.”

Louis shakes his head. “Niall wouldn't take Claire out of school without telling us, unless it was an emergency.” He's vaguely aware of Zayn pulling out his phone and stepping to the other side of the room. “He just wouldn't do that.”

“I know,” Harry agrees. “And even if it was an emergency he wouldn't have left her jacket and backpack behind.”

He can hear Zayn speaking quickly, pausing, then he hangs up the phone and walks over. He keeps eye contact as he does, shaking his head slowly. “Zayn says it wasn't Niall,” Louis tells Harry. “Harry I need you to come home.”

“I-. I have to talk to people first. About it. Should I mention-.”

“Just tell them what you have to,” Louis says. Zayn's on his phone again, presumably with Liam because Louis picks up something about security footage. “And then get home.”

“I'm sorry, Louis,” Harry says. “I should have listened. I should've known and I should-.”

“Harry, just do what you have to.”

There's a pause. “Yeah, okay. Promise me this is going to be okay.”

Louis can't actually promise that, but he does anyway to keep Harry calm. “It'll be fine, Harry. I'll make sure of it. Claire will be okay.”

He ends the call before Harry can say anything else and drops back down on the sofa, head in hands. He's having a hard time breathing, mind going to every imaginable thing he can possibly think of.

“Hey,” Zayn says softly, sitting next to him. “Claire will be okay. Liam's looking into security footage and has hacked into just about everything he can to track wherever she is. If she pops up at an airport we'll know it.” 

Louis snorts, like they're going to take her out of the country with a commercial flight. “Niall had just gotten to the airport when I called,” he continues, rubbing a soothing hand over Louis' back. “But he's saying fuck it to the job so he can be here. And I'm going to do whatever I can to help. Everything is going to be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [thoughtlessblogger](http://www.thoughtlessblogger.tumblr.com)


	3. Didn't You Flash Your Green Eyes At Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's an arrest warrant, they take a trip and things are rocky between Louis and Harry.

When Harry had shown up to the flat, he'd only gotten there two seconds ahead of Niall, who'd declared that he was going to kill whoever it was that used his name to get Claire from school. Harry had ignored him in order to come up to Louis, repeating everything he'd said on the phone. Claire is gone, someone used Niall's name to get, her stuff was left.

Louis had done his best to calm Harry down once he started pacing, pulling at his hair and grumbling incoherently. He'd not been able to do it, mostly because he was worked up just as much as Harry was and it wasn't until Zayn had pointed out that there was a note in Claire's backpack that obviously wasn't from one of her friends that he was able to pull his attention away from Harry.

The note was as typical as a note from the kidnapper could be and if it weren't Louis' daughter that had been taken he probably would have laughed at it since all it said is that Louis needed to stay out of it or Claire would be killed. Louis doesn't even know what _it_ is, but his mind had immediately went to Harvey.

Harvey obviously knew Louis didn't trust him and Louis had made it pretty damn clear that if Harvey was planning something he'd know and stop it. It would make sense if Harvey were to have taken Claire in order to make sure Louis wouldn't interfere. It's about the only thing that he could come up with that made sense.

And despite the fact that Harvey is ultimately the bad guy in this situation Louis can't help but to blame himself. He knew having children was a bad idea and he did it anyway. He also knew working for Harvey was a bad idea and he did that, as well. All of this – whatever happens to Claire – is his fault and he'll never forgive himself for that.

He doesn't have time for self-pity and self-blame otherwise he'd most likely drink himself to death. That and he does need to find Claire and make sure nothing happens to Harry in the meantime, which is why he's left Harry with Liam and Zayn, while he and Niall try to find Harvey on the off-chance he doesn't have anything to do with it.

There is a chance he has no clue about what's happening, but, as Niall pointed out, if he doesn't know a thing about it he could always pull his resources together to help. Louis doesn't think he would, but he's not above getting on his knees and begging at Harvey's feet if it turns out he doesn't know anything. He'll take all the help he can get to get his daughter back.

Unfortunately, though, Harvey wasn't in his office, which wasn't all that surprising and disheartening. The real issue is that he wasn't at home either. It had looked like he'd left in a hurry and there had definitely been clothes missing from his wardrobe. 

After leaving Harvey's home, they'd gone to a coffee shop to sort through what they knew about him to see if they could figure out where he would be. Niall had called the Interpol office asking for him and had been told that Harvey would be out of town for a while and that he'd instructed his secretary not to tell anyone where he'd gone.

“You think the secretary would actually know anything?”

Niall leans back in his chair, crossing his arms. “I doubt he'd be stupid enough to tell the secretary in the first place and if he did say anything I'd guarantee it was lie.”

“Think it's worth finding the secretary?”

“We could,” Niall says. “But, Louis, I think you should limit what you do here. There is a note saying if you don't stay out of it Claire will be killed. If you go around interrogating everyone associated with Harvey you can best bet Harvey will know. You've got to be careful.”

Niall's right, doesn't mean Louis agrees. “I get that, Niall, I do, but this is my daughter we're talking about. I'm not just going to sit back and do nothing.”

“Okay,” he replies, holding his hands up. “Do you have an idea of where he might've gone?”

“I don't know,” he admits. “All I can think of is that he had me working in America a lot and I still don't know why.”

“He could be there.”

“You think he would've taken Claire to America?”

“Louis,” Niall sighs. “There's no way Claire is still in the country. She very well could be in America or Morocco or Cananda. Mexico. She could be anywhere.”

Louis snorts. “You're not making me feel better.”

“Not trying to. I'm just trying to make sure you've got a grasp on the situation.”

“Of course I do,” he spits. “My daughter has been kidnapped and you think I don't understand the situation?”

Niall lets a breath out through his nose. “Not what I meant. You just seem a lot calmer than I would have thought.”

“Yeah, well,” he shrugs. “Harry's doing enough panicking for the both of us. It doesn't do well to lose control and to panic, not if I can get her back myself.”

Niall watches him for a long moment, eyes narrowed and searching, before he says, “I get that. You are usually calm when there's trouble. You just always panic when you think Claire could be in danger and now that she actually is, you're calm.”

“What are you saying?” Louis questions, cocking an eyebrow.

“Nothing other than the fact that you've not changed,” Niall tells him. “You've always been good under pressure. Whenever there's danger you're always calm, cool, and collected, but it's when you _think_ there's danger that you start to panic. It's better for you that way.”

There's really nothing he can say back to that. Niall is right. Louis is good under pressure; it's when he starts thinking too much that he starts to worry. When he gets inside his head he loses every bit of rational thinking he has. It's why he's not letting himself think too much about what's happened with Claire right now. He's not letting himself think about it because then he won't be able to focus on what's right in front of him.

“I think we should go over the jobs he had you doing,” Niall says. When Louis nods, he continues. “There's got to be some connection to it. It's just too weird for it-.”

He cuts himself off, eyes widening as they focus on something behind Louis. “Shit!”

Louis looks over his shoulder, doesn't see anything to illicit this response from him, until his eyes find the television the shop has in the corner. There's a news cast playing and on the screen there are pictures of Liam, Zayn, Niall, himself, and even Harry. It's too loud for him to hear what the woman is saying, but the lower thirds says that there's a warrant out for their arrest. It doesn't say why or who it is that issued the warrant, but he'd bet good money on it being Harvey. 

Suddenly, he becomes all too aware of the people in the shop, the people outside walking by, and he knows they need to leave, but any sudden movement will draw attention to them. He turns back around, elbow on table and hand covering the lower part of his face. “That son of a bitch,” he mutters, making eye contact with Niall.

“We need to go,” Niall says, already standing. “We've got to stay out of sight.”

Louis follows after him quickly, head bent the whole way.

**

“An arrest warrant?” Zayn yells, throwing his arms out. “I've not done anything! Not this time!”

“Well, none of us have, mate,” Liam tells him. He's got three laptops spread out on the table in front of him. Louis doesn't know what he's doing with them, but it's a good bet one is tracking the information about them the public has. “It's not really the point, though.”

“I can't be arrested,” Zayn starts. “I'm-.”

“Yeah, yeah, too pretty for jail,” Niall cuts in, waving a hand around. “Look, Zayn, none of us can be arrested. None of us _want_ to be arrested. Can we move on?”

Zayn frowns, crossing his arms. “That's not what I was saying, but thank you, Niall.”

Louis gives the three of them a pointed look. “Can we, oh I dunno, deal with what's happening?”

“Sorry,” Liam says, clearing his throat. “All I can find out so far is that the arrest warrant was issued by Interpol.”

“Fucking prick,” Niall mutters.

“Which is weird,” Liam continues, “because I don't really think they have the authority to arrest people like us, but apparently I was wrong on that.”

“We just have to make sure no one finds us,” Louis comments. “We stay out of sight we should be fine.”

Zayn walks over to him, lips pursed and eyes narrowed. “Shouldn't we wake Harry and let him know.”

“No,” Louis says emphatically.

When he and Niall had gotten back, Zayn had informed him that Harry hadn't been able to calm himself. Apparently, it was so bad at one point he'd not been able to breath and Zayn had to talk him down, after which Harry still wasn't calm enough to be able to sit still and stop his brain. He'd asked for a sedative. Louis doesn't know where they got one, but apparently they'd managed.

Harry's been sleeping for over an hour and as much as this affects him Louis knows if they woke him he'd only start panicking again once he got over his initial grogginess. Louis doesn't want to be anymore responsible for Harry's panicking than he all ready is. He deserves to sleep for a while and not have to deal with this.

“He can sleep for now,” Louis adds.

Zayn gives a short nod before turning back to Liam. “Did you find anything out about Claire?”

Liam's eyes flash to Louis, dull and sad. “I'm sorry, no. I can't find a thing.”

“It's okay,” Louis tells him, rubbing his forehead. “I didn't expect you too. Harvey is a smart man and has a lot of resources at his disposal. If he doesn't want to be found we won't find him. Same for Claire. We're not going to be able to find them until we find a connection.”

“So let's go over what we know,” Niall says, sitting next to Liam. “Louis, you said he had you working in America a lot. Politicians. Were there any connections between them?”

“I don't know,” Louis admits. “He never told me more than I needed to know. All I know is they were all corrupt in some way, but most politicians are. The thing about these ones is that they seemed to have buried their corruptness. It's like the sort of thing they could have been blackmailed with, you know.”

Liam sighs. “Wish we had those files you obtained on them.”

Louis starts to agree, but shuts his mouth quickly. He's a fucking genius sometimes. “We might have them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I backed them all up electronically in case something should happen,” he explains. “Harvey didn't know. Figured he'd not be happy about it. I never looked through them, though.”

“Well, where are they?”

“Eh, that's the problem. They're on my laptop. It's at the house. I can go-.”

“No,” Zayn says tersely. “There is no way you are leaving this flat. None of us should. It's not safe.”

Louis places his hands on his hips and tilts his head. “Well, what do you suggest? Because we need those files and the only way to get them is if one of us goes and gets them.”

“Someone could be waiting for you there,” Zayn points out. “You don't know what could happen.”

“And neither do you,” Louis retorts. “I'm going. Try and stop me and I won't hesitate to shoot you.”

Zayn to his credit doesn't move, just silently watches as Louis gathers his things and leaves.

**

There's a possibility Zayn had been right about it being too dangerous for him to go back to the house. Everything had been fine when he'd got there. The electricity has been cut while they do the repairs and everything still smells of smoke, but he'd made it to his office without a problem. It was getting out that proved to be a problem.

He'd just been walking down the stairs when he'd heard a door open and close in the back of the house. He'd frozen, cursing himself for not grabbing his gun when he got out of the car and listened. He could only make out the sounds of one person walking through the house slowly, but with intent.

Since he'd been unarmed, Louis hadn't stuck around to see who it was. He'd swiftly gotten out of the house and out to his car without a problem. He's not even sure the person knew he was there or if he was in any actual danger.

Still when he'd gotten back to the flat Zayn hadn't been too thrilled to hear it, but Louis had only waved him off, handing his laptop over to Liam and going to check on Harry.

Harry had still been asleep and slept well into the next morning and as Louis predicted he'd been groggy and irritable, then had started to panic again when he remembered what had happened. It took Louis half an hour to get him to calm down enough to eat something. 

While Liam, Niall, Zayn and him have been looking through all the information Louis has on his cases trying to find connections, Harry's been sitting at the table by the window, staring out at the city with a blank expression on his face. Louis' tried to get him to talk a couple times, but he's having none of it. There's a part of him that wants to yell at him because it's not fair that he isn't doing anything to help find their daughter, but Louis knows that's just him being selfish. Not to mention this is his fault. Harry shouldn't have to deal with this at all, let alone trying to find her.

“Well, I think I might have found something,” Liam says eventually, voice breaking the quiet of the room. “Actually, I've found a few things.”

Zayn raises up on the sofa, tossing the stack of papers he's been looking through on the coffee table. “Tell us, then.”

“Scott Harvey is an alias.”

Liam says it like it's so simple, something they should have know and something that answers all their questions and Louis immediately feels stupid for never thinking to look into Harvey's background.

“His actual name is John Williams. He's American and he used to work for the CIA,” Liam explains, shifting around in his chair.

“The CIA?” Niall questions, cocking an eyebrow. “I don't understand.”

Liam nods. “He was fired for an undisclosed reason. I've tried breaking into the file, but it's not happening any time soon.”

“Wait, wait,” Zayn says, waving a hand around. “You're telling me this guy is an American, who worked for the CIA. He was fired and then made an alias and has been working for Interpol for the last how many years? Twelve?”

“Ten years, but yes.”

Zayn's mouth pops open, but nothing comes out as he stares over at Liam. 

“How does that even happen?” Louis asks, propping his feet up on the coffee table. “Like you would think Interpol would do a better job of vetting their employees.”

Niall looks up at him from the floor. “You think we'd do a better job of vetting our employers.”

“That is true,” Louis says to him before turning back to Liam. “What else do you have?”

Liam sighs, eyes slipping closed for a second. “This is where it gets really interesting,” he says. “Turns out all the politicians you targeted _are_ connected, but like, it's a bit weird.”

“How so?”

“They all attended some sort of breakfast a few weeks back,” Liam starts, scratching at the stubble on his cheek. “Every single one on this list, which wouldn't be so weird I guess because they're supposed to be politicians, but as far as I can tell this wasn't a business breakfast. I should point out that there were several who attended that weren't on your list.”

Louis bites the inside of his cheek, watching as Niall furrows his brow, looking down at the tablet in his lap. “Well, uh, here's somethin',” he begins hesitantly, “I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't think it was a big deal until you told us that. A lower level staffer for Senator Richards of Connecticut, who was not on our list, said he'd overheard Senator Richards and several other politicians speaking of a plot to overthrow the US government.”

He pauses, picking the tablet up so he can read from it. “It says here the staffer is quoted as saying, Senator Richards and others are planning on overthrowing the government, starting with assassinating President Adkins. There was something about an outsider who was in charge of this plot. I didn't hear much else as I wasn't technically allowed to be there, but I think the government should consider this a real threat. End quote.”

Niall pauses again, taking a breath. “A spokesman for Senator Richards has said the Senator has taken great offense to these accusations and does not understand where they are coming from. The spokesman added that they would be more than willing to work with officials to prove this is untrue.”

He sets the tablet to the side. “The article goes on to say that several other of the politicians said to have been involved have also come out to speak against said claims, which, is you know, to be expected. The government doesn't think it's an issue, but will watch closely for any signs that the staffer was right. And, this isn't shocking either, the staffer has disappeared. Hasn't been seen or heard from since the article was released.”

He finishes with a cock of his eyebrow as he looks between them for a response. Liam's staring back at him, his eyebrow knitted together and his mouth wide open. Zayn is watching him incredulously. Louis doesn't blame them for their reactions. It does sound farfetched and yet oddly believable. He's not sure how he feels about it because it does sound like something someone would make up to get their name in the papers, but knowing what they do it's hard to believe someone would make it up.

“Any chance Harvey is the outside leader?”

Zayn turns his attention to Louis. “You really think this is what Harvey was planning? You think he's planning on overthrowing the _United States government_?”

“I wouldn't put it past him,” Louis says.

“That's a big accusation, Louis. Are you really prepared for this?”

“Probably not,” he shrugs. “But-. I mean, I dunno. What else have we found aside from this?” When no one answers him he nods. “See.”

Liam clears his throat, shifting again. “I think we need to find out why Harvey was fired from the CIA or at least why he'd plan this.”

“It doesn't matter why, we need to stop this,” Louis tells him. 

He's about to say more when Harry, for the first time in hours, speaks. “I think it's a bad idea to get involved,” he says quietly, eyes still trained outside. “And I think we should stay here for Claire.”

Louis licks his lips, catches Niall watching him with a worried expression. “So you want me to ignore this, is that what you're saying?”

Harry stands abruptly, his chair falling to the ground behind him. “I'm saying I want you to think about your daughter for once,” he hisses.

“I always think about Claire,” he responds, standing and throwing his papers down behind him. “Don't accuse me otherwise. You've no idea how much-.”

“If you thought about Claire as much as you say you would've stopped this a long time ago,” Harry argues, taking a couple steps into the room. 

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You're the reason this has happened,” Harry says, causing Louis' heart to drop to his stomach. “If it weren't for you working for this son of a bitch Claire would be home right now and everything would be fine. God. You knew this would happen. It's why you never wanted kids and now you don't even seem to be bothered by it. Do you even love her?”

That's the thing isn't it? Louis knows this is his fault, had always feared this would happen and he always knew that if something did happen to Claire Harry would blame him for it. He doesn't blame Harry because it is his fault and even though he expected it it still hurts. He can't even come up with a proper response other than saying Harry is right and maybe crying a bit. 

So far he's done a good job of staying calm since his initial freak out because he's been so focused on making sure Harry was okay and finding out what was going on and where Claire is. It's good for him to stay focused, but maybe his lack of external worry has made Harry believe something different. 

Either way, Harry is right, it is his fault Claire is gone, but he's wrong to question Louis' love for his daughter. It's fucking horrible of him to do that actually because he knows how much Claire means to Louis, has had to reassure him many times over the years that Louis wasn't a harm to her, that he was a wonderful father and Claire loves him. 

Rationally, he knows Harry's upset and worried and angry and a thousand other things, but it does not give him the right to blame this all on Louis or to question Louis' love. It's not fair and Louis knows all this, but it still hurts and enrages him to hear Harry say it.

“Of course I fucking love her, you absolute dick,” he spits, hands clenched into fists at his side. “How can you say I don't? What? Would you rather me sit around, hopelessly staring out of windows and being no help at all?”

He's aware the other three are watching silently as the two of them go at it, but he can't quite find it in him to care as he continues. “Because I'm sorry, but that's not how I work. I have to do _something_. I have to try to find her and bring her back safe and if that means going across a _fucking_ ocean to save someone's life I will fucking do that. I'm aware it may not be the best way to deal with this, but this is me we're talking about.”

“And I know that this is my fault and yeah, I didn't want to have children because I feared this would happen, but _you_ were the one who said it'd be okay. _We_ agreed this would be hard and dangerous, but we did it anyway because we wanted to and she needed a family. And I have done everything I can to make sure she's safe and happy, but I can't stop everything bad from happening, Harry. I just can't and I hate myself for it, but you do not get the right to stand there and say that I don't love my daughter.”

His voice cracks as a tear slides down his face. “You and Claire mean _everything_ to me,” he chokes out. “And it's killing me to think she's in danger because of me. I love you both more than I can even begin to explain and I don't need you to tell me what I all ready know. It's my fault. My daughter is god knows where with god only knows who and I have no idea if she's okay or not and it's my fault.”

Harry deflates a bit at that, shoulders slumping as he bites at his upper lip. He looks small and helpless, but he's still got a hard glint in his eyes. “I think it's a bad idea to leave the country,” he says, ignoring everything Louis' said.

He's not sure how he feels about that. He'd like Harry to fight him some more on this because honestly Harry owes him a fucking apology, but Harry's a stubborn arsehole when he wants to be and it could take days for him to apologize if he does at all. They don't have that kind of time.

“We can't sit back and do nothing,” he argues.

Harry starts to argue back, but Niall pushes himself off the floor. “Look, I agree with Louis,” he says, cautiously watching Harry. “It doesn't seem like the US government thinks there's any merit to this, but we know otherwise and if Harvey is behind this we'll find him there and we'll figure out where Claire is.”

That's not exactly how it would go down, Louis thinks. There's a chance Claire is no where near Harvey, that he's got her with other people who are ordered to kill her if and when Louis apprehends him. It's risky, but there's really no other choice.

“Uh, not to like start an argument,” Zayn begins, frowning when Louis and Harry both glare at him, “or, you know, add to one, but I think Harry's right. We shouldn't get involved in this.”

“We definitely should,” Niall tells him. “We can't let this go.”

“Niall, you can't use your misplaced guilt as the reason we should do this.”

“It's not misplaced,” Niall insists, jaw tight. “And that's not what this is. I think-.”

“Lads, lads,” Liam calls, setting aside his laptop. “Arguing is getting us no where. I think, since we're the only ones who know about this that are taking it seriously we should stop it. It's not like we can stay here. It's a only a matter of time before the officials find out Louis has this place. We'll be sitting ducks if we stay.”

Zayn sighs, whole body sagging. “Look, I don't think we should get involved,” he says to Louis, “but if you decide that's what you're going to do I will be there every step of the way.”

“Well, thank you, mate,” Louis says. “I'm going.”

“Fine,” Harry grits out. “You can go, but I'll stay here.”

Before Louis can argue with him, Liam speaks up. “Harry, if you stay here you will be arrested and that won't do Claire any good either.”

Harry sighs, clenching his jaw. He looks to the ground for a second, then back up, nostrils flared. It's what he always does when he knows he's on the losing end of an argument. “How do you plan on doing this then?” he asks, backing up and leaning on the table behind him. “It's not like you can just waltz up to the President of the United States and tell him someone wants him dead. If anything you'll be arrested.”

“Well, we'll figure that out,” Louis tells him.

**

Liam had left them with the promise of taking care of their travel arrangements since it'd be almost impossible for them to travel normally without being seen. He's not sure where Liam went or how he's taking care of anything, but it meant one less person in his flat and one less person as a barrier between he and Harry.

It was easy to ignore Harry for several hours. Even if he thinks Harry is right about this being his fault, Harry was wrong to question his love for Claire and he's hurt and pissed off and doesn't want to see Harry at all. It was easy until Niall decided he needed to sleep and Zayn fucked off to wherever for a reason he wouldn't share with them. So now he's alone with Harry – unless you count Dog snoring in the corner, then they aren't alone.

He's trying to read over all the information they have so far to see if he can find something they're missing – a connection or _something_ that would help them get Claire back quicker. He's also hoping he can come up with a plan, but he's not having much luck there. He's not having much luck at all really, mostly because Harry won't stop fucking looking at him.

There's this thing Harry does when he knows he was wrong and that Louis is legitimately upset with him or the situation – sometimes both, but that's rare, except now is one of those times – but there's this thing he does where he just sits in the room, on the opposite side, and stares at Louis with wide, apologetic eyes. He does it because Louis is notorious for ignoring Harry for as long as he possibly can when he's upset and angry and he knows that Louis will eventually get fed up with the silent staring and call him out for it, which accomplishes either another argument or a reconciliation. Louis doesn't want either right now.

It's not really the staring that annoys him because Harry does a lot of staring even when they aren't fighting. It's the fact that Harry can't just come up to him and say “Sorry, I fucked up and I will do whatever it takes to make it up to you,” choosing instead to stay silent because he's a stubborn fuck. (Like Louis has room to talk, but Harry pisses him off more than their friends seem to think. Louis has a right to be stubborn sometimes.) Of course, this situation is quite a bit different than their previous fights.

This is essentially his fault, he knows that and he agrees with Harry calling him out on it, but Harry knew the risks and agreed to this all the same. Harry has a right to be upset and the situation is making them both think, say and do things they normally wouldn't, but that doesn't give Harry the right to full on blame him. He blames himself fully, however, Harry shouldn't. Still, it's not even what he's most upset about. What he's most upset about is the things Harry said to him, questioning his love for Claire.

It's extremely fucking hurtful to have Harry question that because, aside from Harry, Claire is the only human being Louis would give his life for without question. (There was a time when the lads were on that list, but having Claire changed his perspective on that a bit.) He loves Claire more than anything, hates himself that this is happening because of him, and would be out of his mind with worry if he didn't have something to focus on, like getting her back. He's sure Harry is reading this wrong, probably thinks Louis isn't as concerned as he should be, but honestly he'd be running around, threatening everyone he came across and probably getting himself killed if he weren't trying to figure all this out. Harry will see that eventually, he hopes.

Harry questioned something he should have known the answer too and whether it's because of his state of mind right now or not it still hurt him and he does deserve an apology. He's got a feeling he won't be getting one soon, though, because Harry is stubborn. Too stubborn for his own good sometimes and if he thinks not apologizing and staring apologetically is going to fix anything he's terribly wrong. It's clear he fucked up and it's clear he knows that. He should apologize. Louis won't forgive him until he does, staring or not.

The silent staring has been going on for three hours now. It's not making Louis feel better in anyway, which is why he slams the laptop shut, cringing when he remembers that it's Liam's, and shoves it beside him on the sofa. “Will you stop that goddamn staring? You're driving me fucking crazy,” he snaps, crossing his arms. “It's not going to fix anything.”

Harry winces at his tone, doing his best to shrink into the chair. “I'm sorry,” he whispers, not meeting Louis' eyes. “I didn't mean it.”

“Shouldn't have fucking said it then,” Louis replies, narrowing his eyes. “I mean, how the hell did you think I would take that? How in the hell am I supposed to feel when you're questioning my love for my daughter? _Our_ daughter? What the hell were you thinking?”

“I wasn't,” Harry rushes out, shaking his head and meeting Louis' eyes. “I'm so so sorry. Of course I know you love her. And I know you'd do anything for her. I wasn't thinking and I didn't mean it. I'm just so scared and worried and I need her back, Louis.”

Harry barely gets the last bit out, eyes watering and voice cracking. It makes some of Louis' anger dissipate. _Of course_ , Harry is scared. He's never been good with dealing with fear, usually lashes out because of it, so it makes sense he was lashing out at Louis. It even makes sense that Harry would blame him because he needs someone to blame and Louis is there. Still, he shouldn't have said it and it seems he was perfectly willing to let Louis go on being upset by it.

“You wouldn't have said it if you hadn't thought it,” Louis points out, arms falling beside him and eyes downcast. 

“I didn't mean it,” Harry says again.

Louis breathes out through his nose, trying to remain calm. “Do you have any idea what it's like to have someone question your love for your child? It's fucking horrible, Harry. And I get that this is partially my fault, so I don't blame you for hating me for this, but I'm just as worried as you are. You don't see me questioning your love for her because you chose to be with me and have a child with me when you knew the potential consequences.”

“That's not-.”

“Harry, don't make this worse,” Louis says, holding a hand up. “Look, you have every right to be worried and angry, but I'm not the only one to blame for this. I'm not the person that kidnapped her. I do everything I can to make sure she's protected.”

“I know that, Louis,” Harry says, pushing up from the chair and crossing the room. 

“Do you?”

Harry nods. He stops in front of Louis and sits on his lap, straddling him, hands rested on Louis' shoulders. He's not particularly graceful about it, but he never is and Louis' hands immediately grip at Harry's waist. “Of course I do,” he breathes out, resting his forehead against Louis'. “I know you love her and I was there when you were revamping our security and coming up with every way you could to protect her. I know.”

Louis pulls his head away from Harry, turning away from him. “Then why did you sa-.”

“I didn't mean it,” Harry says forcefully. “I'm so, so sorry, Louis,” he adds, gently cupping Louis' face and turning his head so he can look at him. Louis refuses to meet his eyes, staring down at their laps. “I didn't mean to-. I really didn't mean it and I hate that I said it and that you feel like this. I know what this must be doing to you and I can't apologize enough for it.”

Sniffling, Louis looks up. Harry's eyes are red and puffy, have been almost all day, but Louis can see the regret and an apology there. It doesn't make him feel much better, though. Sure, it's nice knowing that Harry doesn't truly think what he said earlier, but _it's still Louis' fault_. Nothing Harry can say or do will make him feel better about that.

“It's still my fault, though,” he whispers, closing his eyes to hopefully stop his tears. “She wouldn't be wherever she is if it weren't for me.”

Harry doesn't say anything to that. There's nothing he could say, so he wraps his arms around Louis and pulls him into a hug. Louis falls into it easily, burying his face into the crook of his neck.

They don't say anything after that, just continue clinging onto each as silent tears fall down both their cheeks. They stay like that until Liam comes back, claiming they'll be able to get out of the country without problem. They fall asleep still holding onto each other, both trying, but failing, to hide their tears.

**

Liam's got a track on all the politicians they know of involved in whatever the hell it is they're involved in. He'd never explained how they managed to get out of England without being caught. Louis probably doesn't want to know, truthfully.

They'd spent the first couple of days they were here going over and over all the information they had in hopes of finding something new. They never did manage to and there's been sign of Harvey anywhere. After Liam had said, “I mean, it's basically a coup. We're dealing with a coup here,” Louis had to take a break. He'd – against Harry's wishes – went out to explore D.C. 

He's been there before, but never had the time to actually take anything in. Honestly, he's not taking much of anything in, just walking aimlessly. It may not be the safest thing he's ever done, but they've been keeping a track on the their names. According to Liam, whoever issued the arrest warrant and is in charge of finding them didn't think they'd be able to make it out of the country. No one in America is looking for them, hopefully.

Louis' sure someone like the FBI or CIA knows who they are. They probably aren't actively looking for them, though. They probably haven't even considered the fact that they could be in America. He can't figure out what that means. 

Harvey would have known they'd be able to piece all of this shit together, so he should've known that they'd come here to try to stop it. It doesn't make sense why he wouldn't have pulled some strings to have these agencies looking for them. Unless he thinks the threat of hurting Claire would keep them away. In which case, Louis' not sure which one of them is more stupid.

He obviously doesn't want any harm to come to Claire, but he's got no idea where she is and if he can stop this and get her back he'll do both. Harvey would've had to know that. It doesn't make sense why Louis' able to walk out of the hotel and travel all around D.C. without someone spotting him and trying to arrest him. Maybe that's why he thinks he's being followed.

No, he's definitely being followed. He's been all over the city in the past three days and he can tell someone is following him. He can _feel_ it. Every single time he goes out he has that feeling. Whoever it is hasn't tried anything and he's thought about setting a trap for them, but he's not entirely sure if it's worth it. The person may not be all that dangerous, just someone who's supposed to make sure he doesn't get too close to something.

He's not told the others about it because he knows they'd make him stay in and he can't handle staying cooped up. He needs to be out and about.

Zayn's with him today. They've not spoken much and Louis thinks Harry sent Zayn out with him today to keep an eye on him. Louis doesn't necessarily mind it and he knows Zayn's staying silent because he thinks that's what Louis wants, but he'd honestly rather have Zayn's inane chatter in his mind than anything else at this point.

They're turning a corner, Zayn having just stopped to stub out his cigarette, when Louis catches movement out of the corner of his eye. He's not entirely sure what it was he saw, but it has him tensing a bit, keeping on guard. 

He lets them walk a little while longer to make sure they are being followed before slowing. “Zayn,” he says out of the corner of his mouth. “We're being followed.”

Zayn turns to him, quirking an eyebrow. “Really?” he asks, glancing around inconspicuously. “I didn't notice. I don't think we are.”

For a brief moment, Louis doubts it because Zayn _always_ knows when he's being tailed, but he shakes his head, getting rid of that thought. “No, we definitely are. I thought someone was following me every time I've been out.”

“You think that was wise?”

“Prolly not,” he says, shrugging. “I want to know who it is and why,” he adds after a moment, barely avoiding being hit with a woman's purse as she passes him. “Let's figure it out.”

Zayn shakes his head. “Not sure it's the best idea,” he says. “We should probably just head back.”

“No,” Louis draws out with a lilt. “I'm definitely going to figure this out.”

He seems apprehensive about it, but he follows Louis anyway, picking up the pace. Louis turns into an alley, Zayn taking position behind him, turning toward the entrance. “I'm not gonna like this,” Zayn mumbles behind him.

Louis wants to ask him why he's being so damn weird about this, but he doesn't have time because someone is turning the corner, coming right at them. He doesn't stop to ask questions, instead lunging forward. He lands a punch directly to the man's jaw, catching him off guard. Louis gets a couple hits to his sternum in before the man recovers, catching his fist in his hand and throwing a punch at Louis.

He pulls back, wiping at his mouth, feeling some blood. He spits, then throws himself back at the man. They trade a couple more punches before Louis kicks the guy in the balls. He doubles over, groaning and Louis elbows the guy between his shoulder blades and pushes him to the ground.

The man lands on his back, but before he can do anything, Louis' crouching over him with a gun pointed to his head. Helplessly the man stares up at him, which is when Louis recognizes him. It's the big, buff, bald American who gave him the video of Zayn.

Tilting his head and narrowing his eyes, Louis says, “What the hell?” He glances back at Zayn, who's frowning down at them almost apologetically. “Who are you and what the hell do you want?” he demands, looking back at the man.

The man sighs heavily, rolling his eyes. Looking up toward Zayn he says, “Call off your attack dog, Malik.”

Louis freezes, blinks, drops his arm to his side and stands up straight, taking a couple steps back. He watches silently as Zayn steps between them and helps the man up. Louis can only watch with wide eyes, fish-mouthing as they share a one armed hug.

“Sorry 'bout him,” Zayn says, nodding his head back at Louis. “He gets paranoid.”

Dropping his mouth wide open, Louis turns to gape at Zayn. “Figure I deserve it a bit after our last meeting, right?” the man asks Louis. He turns to him, mouth still wide open. “Although, I had hoped you could've stopped him,” the man continues, addressing Zayn.

Zayn shrugs. “When he gets an idea in his head there's no stopping him.”

“That's not always a bad thing.”

“You've not spent much time with him, though. Just wait-.”

“Whoa! Whoa!” Louis finally calls out, throwing his arms out and waving them around helplessly. “I don't understand,” he says. “You know each other?” he asks, gesturing between them.

Zayn nods. The man steps forward, holding a hand out. “Agent Broderick of the CIA.”

Louis punches him.

**

Agent Broderick of the CIA is currently tied to a chair in their hotel suite despite Zayn's half-arsed protests. Zayn may know him and Broderick may claim to be there to help, but Louis doesn't trust him, has his gun his hand as he interrogates him.

“What do you have to do with all this?”

Broderick purses his lips, glancing over at Zayn, who's leaning against the door frame to one of the bedrooms, arms crossed and bored expression on his face. “Is this really necessary?”

Zayn nods. “If you want him to even remotely trust you you'll answer his questions.”

Liam quirks an eyebrow. “I want answers to, Zayn. It's not just Louis.”

“I've been after Harvey for years,” Broderick tells him, cutting off whatever Niall was about to add. “Knew he was corrupted, but I never had proof and the higher ups never believed my claims.”

“Okay,” Louis draws out. “Go on.”

“I'm sure you've figured out by now that Harvey is an alias. His real name is John Williams.”

Liam sighs. “We know all this. He was fired, but I couldn't figure out why.”

Broderick nods solemnly. “He was leaking information to people. I had always suspected it, but never could prove it. He was caught and fired. He made the alias of Scott Harvey and somehow managed to fool Interpol for ten years.”

Harry, who's sitting on a sofa behind them, asks, “Why didn't you tell them? Surely they would have listened to you.”

“I couldn't prove it,” Broderick says. “In the beginning I was still entry level basically. They would have taken his word over mine. His alias was as solid as it could be. Then, as time went on, I couldn't find anything to suggest he was doing something illegal. That is until about two or three years ago.”

“Where we come in?” Niall asks.

“I have an informant in Interpol that worked somewhat closely with Williams or Harvey or whatever you want to call him,” he says. “Told me that he was up to something, but he wasn't sure what. So I looked into it, realized that he was planning something that involved our politicians.”

Louis steps in front of him, leaning down. “How does Zayn come into this?”

“Met him about eight months back in New York,” Broderick begins. “I recognized him from a file I'd seen years ago and knew he had connections to Williams through you and Horan. I told Malik everything I knew and asked for help, since there's only so much I can do from here.”

“Things didn't exactly go to plan,” Zayn adds, eyes fixed on Louis. “We were undercover in Peru, looking for a drug lord who has connections to several of the politicians involved.”

“Dole,” Louis mutters under his breath.

Zayn nods, but Broderick picks up the story. “Malik here managed to get himself arrested, but I couldn't get him without blowing our cover. I was able to get a hold of the video feed and knew I needed to get it to you, Tomlinson.”

“You could have gotten him out,” Louis says through gritted teeth.

Broderick shakes his head. “Would have been too suspicious for me to do it myself,” he says. “And I needed to get out of there as quick as possible in case I got caught too. I had no idea what these people knew or were about to find out.”

“He was locked up with people who have been labeled terrorists by the US government,” Louis argues.

Zayn steps away from the door. “Well, to be fair, most of them were and the prisoners weren't the people I had issue with, but that's not the point.” 

“The hell it isn't,” Louis growls, rounding on him.

“It's really not,” Zayn tells him calmly.

Louis clenches his jaw, turning back to Broderick. “So now I'm involved. Was that the plan?”

“Somewhat,” Broderick answers. “It was hard hunting you down to give you the video, but I did that so you could help your friend. I was hoping to keep you, Horan and your family out of this, but you're involved now and I'd quite like to have your help.

Louis scoffs, running a hand down his face. “I don't believe any of this.” 

“Why would I lie to you?” 

Turning to Zayn, he says, “Niall did.” 

Niall starts to speak up, probably to defend himself, but Zayn continues. “I never actually lied to you,” he says. “I didn't want you involved in this, but you are now.”

“You should have said something,” Louis argues. “Before everything went to shit.”

“I was detained!”

“Look,” Broderick interrupts. “The CIA is asking for your help.” 

Louis turns around, starts pacing and running his free hand through his hair. “I don't like this,” he tells them. “I really fucking hate this actually,” he corrects, pointing a finger at Zayn. 

Somewhere in his mind he understands why Zayn's done what he did. He understands that plans don't always happen the way you wanted, but he still doesn't like that he's been brought into this. Or that-.

“They took my fucking daughter!” he yells, stopping his pacing. “Was that part of your plan?” He rounds on Zayn. “Seriously, what the hell were you thinking? You knew Harvey would come after Claire!” 

Zayn's scoffs, eyebrows knitting together. He's obviously offended, but Louis doesn't fucking care. “No, I didn't.”

“And why the hell did you side with Harry on coming here?” he asks remembering how Zayn had said they shouldn't get involved.

“Is it not obvious?” Zayn asks. “I didn't want you to get involved. Any of you. I all ready was, but I didn't want you getting dragged into it, especially you Louis because you have so much more to lose than me. I was trying to protect you.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “Fat lot of good that did, huh?”

“You're an insufferable twat sometimes, Louis.”

“At least I don't lie to my friends,” Louis counters with. It's a weak argument and a lie. He definitely has lied to them – many times. “If you knew Harvey was so horrible why did you let Niall and I continue working for him?”

Zayn's eyes widen, mouth slowly opening. He blinks twice before saying, “If both of you just stopped working for him randomly – for no reason at all – it would have been suspicious as fuck.”

That might make sense. Louis doesn't care, though. “You could have said t-.”

“Louis.”

He blinks, watching as Harry steps in front of him. “Babe, calm down,” he says, grabbing Louis by the shoulder. “Yelling at Zayn – as fun as that probably is – is not going to help anything.”

Louis licks his lips, taking a deep breath. He nods, lets Harry lead him to the sofa. Once settled – Louis burrowed into Harry's side – Harry nods at Broderick to continue.

“We do know where your daughter is.”

Harry tenses up beside him and Louis' heart stops at the mention of Claire.

“Why the hell didn't you lead with that?” Harry demands before Louis has a chance to. 

“She's all right,” Broderick says. “She's being well taken care of by whoever it is that has her.”

“I don't believe that,” Louis says. “Why haven't you gotten her yet?”

Broderick frowns. “Basically, it's too dangerous for her if we did at this moment in time. I won't sit here and list all the reasons why because you're smart men. You can figure it out for yourselves.”

Louis probably could, yeah, but he can't think too much about it without wanting to kill someone whether they're involved or not. He wouldn't mind killing Broderick right now.

“Williams has hired someone to keep her and we've got someone planted to make sure she's not in any danger. We're monitoring her closely. Once we know it's safe we'll get her out.”

It makes him feel marginally better that someone is making sure Claire isn't being hurt, but he knows Claire will still be scared and the thought of his daughter being in a place she doesn't know with people she doesn't know and her being scared is enough to drive him crazy. 

Still, according to Broderick, she's okay. That's enough for now.

Liam crosses the room, walks behind the chair Broderick is in and unties him. Broderick nods at him as Liam goes back to his spot. Broderick stands, rubbing at his wrists and cracking his neck. “Obviously I'm not going to force you into helping and no matter what you answer I will get your daughter back safe.”

Niall, who's remained silent most of the evening, makes eye contact with Louis. Instantly, Louis knows what he's trying to say. It's partially their fault this has gone on for so long, that Harvey or Williams or whoever the fuck he is has managed to get so far in his plan.

There's a certain amount of guilt Louis feels for it and he can tell Niall feels it too. Neither one of them will feel better about this unless they help stop it. (He can't even begin to imagine how he'll feel if Harvey manages to succeed in killing the President.)

He gives a slight nod to Niall, who returns it. Liam's glancing between the two of them when Louis breaks eye contact with Niall. He lets out a frustrated sigh, mumbling, “Hate when you two do that.”

“Okay,” Louis says, turning to Broderick. “We'll do whatever we can.”

Broderick meets his eye, nodding.

“Why not alert the President or his security?” Harry asks from beside him.

Taking a deep breath, Broderick says, “Some of the secret service has been bought off, members of the FBI, but there's no way to know how many or who.”

“Of course it can't be fucking easy,” Niall mutters.

Broderick turns to him. “No, but we do have an idea of when they'll attack,” he says. “There's a state dinner in two weeks. The President will be there as well as the Prime Minister of Bhutan and many other politicians.”

“Why wouldn't they go for him sooner?” Liam asks.

“The President is in Camp David for the next to weeks,” Broderick answers. “He'll be back in the city the day of. Camp David is the safest place for him at this moment.”

Louis sighs. “Well, any one got any ideas of how to stop this?”


	4. You Held on Tight to Me 'cause Nothing's as it Seems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They might have a plan, Louis feels like he'll never see Harry again, and things don't exactly work out the way they should.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean, this is heavily fictionalized. 
> 
> **Violence in this chapter. So beware.**

Predictably, no one had any idea. Broderick has kept in contact, making sure everyone is up to speed. Nothing much has happened and the increasing frustration can be felt from every single one of them. But Broderick still insists on informing them and checking up. It's normally a phone call if it's something he can keep short and simple, but if it's something he thinks is more important he'll come see them in fear of the call being tapped. His visits don't last long, usually in and out, and the only thing he addresses to he and Harry is that Claire is still all right. 

They hadn't thought anything of it when he'd called this morning because it's quickly become routine, but several hours later he'd showed up at the hotel. Louis had been the one to answer the door and his blood had immediately run cold. They never hear from him twice in one day, so his mind had gone to every worse case scenario it could conjure.

It didn't help when Broderick had simply said, “It's Claire. Get everyone. We're going on a trip.” 

Louis hadn't been able to calm down until they got in the car. That's when Broderick decided to clear up the “It's Claire” statement by saying that she was fine, but they might be able to get her out of her holding in the next day or so and they were going to the office to meet with the Agent in charge of keeping track of Claire.

It had only calmed him a bit. He still doesn't trust these people, but if they help get his daughter back he'll be eternally grateful.

“Doesn't look like what I imagined a CIA office to look like,” Niall mutters to Louis as they walk through the building.

Louis has to admit he agrees. It's not as big – certainly not as populated – and he's about to reply when Broderick says, “It's a temporary office. Don't ask why. Can't tell you that.”

He and Niall share a look before following him through double glass doors leading into a bigger room with massive computer screens covering the wall directly in front of them. Smaller computers rest on desks throughout the room and a set of stairs leads down to the lower level. 

Liam looks like he's died and gone to heaven, eyes wide as he takes in the room full of the tech stuff he'd love to have. Louis' not sure why he'd need a computer screen that took up a whole wall, but he knows Liam's talked about having one for years. 

Broderick starts leading them down the stairs when Louis notices half the wall is covered in a map. He can't tell what the map is of, but off in the right hand corner is a picture of Claire. He's staring at it, not paying attention to anything when he feels Zayn rest a hand on his lower back.

“Come on, Lou,” he whispers, leading him after the others.

When they catch up, Broderick is explaining how some of their technology works to Liam. “Basically, we use the satellites to-.”

“Now is not the time for a school lesson,” a woman wearing all black says from where she's bent, looking over someone's shoulder. “And I though you hated teaching,” she adds, standing. 

Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail, eyes penetrating as she takes the five of them in. She's quite intimidating, but even knowing nothing about her, Louis feels like he can trust her.

“Agent Nelson,” Broderick says. “It's not that I hate teaching, it's just that most of my students have been unteachable.”

“That's not true and you know it,” she replies with a small smile.

Broderick laughs quietly, then gestures at them. “Nelson, this is Liam Payne and Niall Horan. I believe you've met Malik before.” 

She greets Liam and Niall with a handshake, then smiles at Zayn. “Yes, he tried to kill me.”

“Uh, well,” Zayn says, a light pink coloring his cheeks. “I was being followed. Had to protect myself.”

“Perfectly understandable. Though it was a good thing I was able to get you on the ground so fast. Otherwise, I might be dead.”

Zayn's cheeks, for some reason, darken at that. Louis makes a mental note to ask about his meeting with her later.

Broderick looks between them a couple times before rolling his eyes. Gesturing at Louis and Harry, he says, “And this is Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles.” They shake hands, Nelson smiling politely. “I believe you have some information for them about their daughter.”

She nods. “Of course, but before I get to that I did find something else.”

Louis cocks an eyebrow. “What else could there possibly be?”

“The politicians Williams had you going after were the ones not in on his plot,” Nelson tells him. “He was using the information you gathered to blackmail them into complying.”

“Great,” Louis sighs. “I helped plan the attempted assassination of the President of the United States.”

“Well, not exactly, Louis,” Liam starts, “you just helped get people involved and it's not-.”

“Shut up, Liam.”

Liam snaps his mouth shut.

“I'm sorry,” Harry says, rubbing at his temples. “This isn't really important to me. And maybe I should care a little more, but you said you had information on my daughter. What is it?”

Nelson glances at Broderick, looking for the go ahead. When he nods, she turns back to the desk, bending over again. “I won't get into the specifics of how because it'll bore you,” she says, typing on a keyboard in front of her. The map on the wall starts zooming in, but he still can't make anything out. “But we were able to trace your daughter’s whereabouts to a cargo shack in Uganda.”

“Uganda?” he questions, eyebrows raised. “How in the hell did they get her there?”

Nelson starts to speak, but Harry cuts her off. “I don't really care about how. What I want to know is how are we getting her back?”

“It seems Williams hired and armed local Ugandans to look after her,” Nelson says as the pictures on the wall change to views of the shack and armed guards. “We haven't been able to get in, but it seems the shack is all there is to it. We were worried it went underground, but our intelligence suggests otherwise. We don't know how many guards there are, but we do know there's only two entrances, which means only two exits.”

The screen starts showing animated blueprints of what Louis assumes is the shack. “There's one in the front and one in the back. From what we know, two guards on each. We're hoping we take out those guards easily and quietly before we enter the shack.”

“We don't want to cause alarm,” Broderick adds. “We're not sure what their orders are, but it's a safe bet that Williams instructed the Ugandans to kill Claire if a rescue mission was underway.”

“So there is a rescue mission?” Liam questions.

“There will be,” Nelson says, straightening up. “We think we have a good handle on the situation. If we don't move soon who knows what will happen.”

“The state dinner is in a couple days,” Broderick picks up. “Once it's over, whether Williams succeeds or not, he has no need for Claire.”

“You're saying he'll have her killed regardless?”

Broderick turns to him. “Yes.”

“Then how do we know she's alive?” Louis says. “If his plan is to kill her anyway and he thinks that Harry and I have no idea where she is or how she is, she could very well be dead all ready.”

Nelson lets out a loud breath. “I won't show it to you, but we have video of Claire being taken into this shack. I don't know why he hasn't instructed them to kill her yet. He probably has a reason, but it doesn't matter because she is alive right now. And we have a plan to get her out. Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Harry questions, disbelief evident in his voice. “You're getting my daughter back tomorrow?”

Louis feels the same as Harry. It's hard to believe. This nightmare has been going on for far too long. He misses his daughter and wants her back, wants to know that she is safe and properly taken care of. 

“I will be leading the mission myself,” Nelson says, nodding. “We'll-.”

“I'm coming,” Louis says, cutting her off. Everyone turns to him, varying degrees of exasperation on the faces of his friends. “If you're going to get my daughter I'm coming too.”

“No,” Nelson says. “You're not coming along.”

“I am too. She's my daughter,” he argues.

“And it's my rescue mission.”

“It's too risky, Louis,” Zayn tells him.

“Your emotions could cloud your judgment,” Liam adds.

Louis turns to Niall, cocking an eyebrow. “Anything to add?” Niall holds his hands up, shaking his head. Turning back to Nelson and Broderick, he says, “Look, I get it. It's not ideal for me to go, but Claire's been away from us for so long. She's been with people she doesn't know. She's alone and scared and it'll be better for her if I'm there.”

Nelson starts to argue, but Broderick cuts her off. “Nelson, he's got a point. Claire will do better if someone she knows is there.”

Nobody points out that they could easily send Liam, Zayn, or Niall and it's agreed that Louis will go.

**

Louis had thought that the plane they were taking to Uganda would be nicer than what they're on, but it had been explained to him that they weren't going to change planes so they needed to have something more inconspicuous. Apparently, some sort of freight plane was their answer to that.

It's cramped, dark, smelly and uncomfortable. There aren't any windows and it's hot. The agents in with him are all sweaty in their all black uniforms, which adds to the smell. Nelson, who's been switching between the cockpit and where they are, isn't in full uniform. Much like her, Louis isn't in full uniform, but he's still sweating profusely. 

He'd been given the full thing, but Louis has never once used a bullet proof vest and he's not about to start now. It was too hot for him to wear the jacket, so he's only got on the black tee and he'd borrowed Niall's double-breasted holster.

He's jittery, leg bouncing and hands shaking. He's worried about Claire, for Claire and that something will go wrong. He's with highly trained professionals who do this sort of thing all the time, but he's still worried.

Nelson comes out of the cockpit and heads straight for him. She sits in the seat next to him. “Stop worrying. We know what we're doing.”

“Doesn't help much.”

She doesn't seem to like him much or maybe she's like this with everyone, but he knows she wasn't thrilled with him coming along. She's been a bit cold and distant with him, just generally unhappy with his presence, but he still likes her. She's smart and good at what she's doing and even if she disagrees with him being there, she seems to understand his need for it.

“We'll get her back and safely,” she says quietly, staring straight ahead. “The plane is going to drop us about twenty miles off and we'll walk the rest of the way. Don't want to alert them.”

Louis nods like it's the first time he's hearing it. It isn't. They've gone over it three times since yesterday. “Once we get there,” she continues, “Mills will take a team around the front of the building, taking out the two guards there and going in that way. I will lead the team through the back. You will be with me. We will find Claire and get her out as quick as possible. Your husband will meet us on the ground when this is all over.”

“Is it safe for him to be there?” Louis wonders.

“He'll be in a helicopter, circling around. We won't bring him in until we're sure it's safe,” she tells him. Turning to him, she says, “Wait, actually, is he your husband? I'm not quite sure. I never found anything saying otherwise, but there was also nothing saying he was.”

Louis just grins at her in response. She's managed to calm him without him realizing and maybe that was her whole reason for coming over.

He does start to answer her question, but the pilot comes over the speaker and says they'll be landing in two minutes.

His nerves come back.

**

He watches silently as the two guards at the back entrance are taken out by snipers Nelson ordered. Once they're on the ground, Nelson silently instructs two agents to move forward. They run up, checking the guards' bodies and give the okay.

Nelson tells the rest of the agents to move, her and Louis following after. When they get there, two agents open the door, immediately pointing their guns inside. When nothing happens, they walk on. Everyone starts going in as Nelson stands at the door waving them through. 

When Louis starts to go in, she stops him by grabbing him by the elbow. “Listen, Tomlinson, I know you're used to being in charge, but there is a reason that agents are not allowed to be part of jobs where their families are involved. There are reasons why doctors can't perform procedures on their families, so I need you to listen to me and follow my instructions and if you can't do that I will gag you and tie you up and leave you here.”

There's a part of him that wants to argue, but he knows she's right. If Louis lets his emotions get the better of him, it'll only put Claire in more danger.

He nods. “I understand.”

Nelson purses her lips, lets go of him and waves him through.

It's a dark, hot corridor that splits into two at the end. The agents are waiting for further instruction just inside the door. Nelson motions for them to wait for her to go through first. Louis follows closely after her, thinking it's ridiculous that his daughter warrants this kind of security. It's not like she's the daughter of a political leader and is being held by ransom. She's just the kid of a guy who's gotten himself into a mess.

They don't get far down the corridor when a guard comes around the corner. Everyone freezes. He's staring at them, hand on his gun, eyes widening because he knows this isn't going to end well for him. Whether he yells out of not he's going to die. Louis knows, the agents know that, Nelson knows, he knows. He will die.

Before he can open his mouth, Nelson brings up her gun, silencer on, and shoots him between the eyes. He falls to the ground in a heap, blood pooling around him.

“Nice shot,” Louis comments.

“Trained with the CIA, what'd you think my shot would be?” she says, taking a step away.

Louis shrugs. “Just take the damn compliment. Jesus,” he says, following after her.

It's not much longer that they hear the sound of gunfire and yelling coming from the left. “Damn it,” Nelson hisses. “Reynolds, take three guys to the right. The rest of you follow me,” she orders. “Tomlinson, stay close.”

They move faster now, not coming across anyone until a door opens and four guards come out. The guards are outnumbered, but they came out right in front of them and they weren't expecting it, so they've got the element of surprise. 

Nelson takes one out easily enough, but as Louis raises his gun to shoot another, a fifth guard comes out of the room, knocking his gun away. Louis recovers quickly, able to punch the guy in the face, knocking his gun away as well. The man is twice his size and stronger, so when he hits Louis back, he stumbles, hitting the wall behind him with an “oomph”. 

The guard aims another punch at his head, but Louis ducks, his hand making contact with the wall. He grabs the man around the waist and knees him in the groin. The man doubles over and Louis stands straight, elbowing him in the back of the neck in hopes the guy will go down. He doesn't.

Instead, he stands up and throws Louis into the wall, hitting twice in the stomach. Louis manages to move out of the way of a third punch, but the forth hits him in the jaw. Blood fills his mouth as his head hits the wall. The man gets a couple other punches in, not holding Louis as tightly as he should. 

He sneaks a hand around his waist, grabbing his other gun out of the holster, placing the barrel in the man's abdomen. Before the man can process what's about to happen, Louis shoots him. He freezes, eyes widening and then he falls to the ground. 

Louis slumps back against the wall and slides down to his bum, breathing hard and spitting blood out next to him. His head is bent, so he only sees Nelson feet stop in front of him.

“Not bad,” she comments. 

When he looks up, she's holding her hand out. He takes it, letting her pull him up. “I taught myself,” he says, brushing himself off.

She cocks an eyebrow, holding out his gun for him. “Right, couldn't tell that.”

He takes his gun, rolling his eyes. “I've managed to survive all these years.”

“And it's a miracle.”

He starts to retort, but someone yells. It's coming from behind the door at the end of the hall. They start to it, get there quickly and throw open the door.

When they get in the room, the first thing he sees is Claire being held by a man who's got a gun to her head. His heart stops, taking the scene in. Claire's dirty and hair unwashed and matted, but he doesn't see anything physically wrong with her aside from a cut across her forehead. Her tears are leaving tracks down her face, washing the dirt away.

Against what his body is telling him to do, he stays in place, letting Nelson handle the situation. 

The man holding Claire is yelling at them in Swahili as more agents filter into the room.

“You're surrounded,” Nelson says calmly. “You might as well let her go.”

He continues yelling in Swahili. Louis rolls his eyes, muttering, “Doe he even speak English?”

Nelson shoots him a dark look as an agent to his left snorts and Claire seems to notice him for the first time, yelling out “Papa!”

She tries to move, but the man jerks her back, tightening his grip and thrusting the gun at her head even more. Louis wants to rip him apart. Claire starts crying more, sobbing out for him. It breaks his heart, but he realizes what the situation is.

This man has a gun to his daughter's head. This man knows he will die if he kills her, but he also knows he'll either die or be taken into questioning if he doesn't. People like this probably don't know much of the greater plan, so he's probably got nothing to bargain with, which means his life is worth nothing. Nelson knows this. He probably knows it. He will most likely die even if he hands Claire over easily.

He has a choice to make. Louis hopes he chooses the right one.

“Claire, calm down, love,” he says, trying to keep the waver out of his voice. If she picks up that he's scared it'll only scare her more. She needs to be calm. “You need to be calm, okay? I'm here. Papa's here just like I said I'd be, yeah? I'm gonna get you out of here. I'm gonna protect you like I promised, but I need you to calm down, okay, baby?”

She nods, chocking back her tears and stopping her fidgeting.

The man continues yelling at them, more frantic then before. He's starting to panic, Louis realizes. “What's the plan?” he hisses out of the corner of his mouth. 

Nelson shakes her head. “I'm thinking.”

“Think faster. He's about to pull the trigger.”

He may not be, but that's where Louis' mind is. His daughter has a gun to her head. This needs to end. 

“Just let the girl go,” Nelson says, voice calm. “And we'll spare you.” The man shakes his head. “If you kill her, you'll definitely die.” 

Louis doesn't think there's any reasoning with this guy, doesn't understand why Nelson is trying, but she's leading this mission. He's not. He's doesn't get to call the shots. 

“If you want to live at all you won't harm her. We know who you're working for and we're prepared to stop him. You'll be safe of him.”

The man has stopped yelling, only muttering under his breath things they can't make out. His grip on Claire loosens and he slowly drops his arm holding the gun to his side. Louis watches with bated breath as he lets go of Claire entirely.

When she realizes she runs straighter for Louis. He's got enough time to put his gun in the holster, crouching down and scooping her into a tight hug. She buries her face into his neck, getting him all snotty, while the man is arrested by a couple of agents.

“Claire,” he whispers, gripping her tighter. “You're not hurt are you?” She shakes her head. “Good, good. Sorry it took me so long to get you. I'm so sorry. So so sorry.”

“Tomlinson,” he hears Nelson say. “I know this is an emotional reunion and all, but I'd like to get us out of here as quickly as possible.”

He looks up at her and nods. He pulls Claire away from him, looking her in the eyes. “You want to go see your daddy?”

Her eyes light up a bit at that. “Daddy's here too?”

“He will be, but we gotta get out of here.”

She nods. “Thank you, Papa,” she says as they're walking down the hall, her hand clamped in his.

“For what?” he asks, looking down at her.

“Saving me,” she says simply, a tear falling down her cheek. “I knew you would. You promised.”

He'd been doing a good job keeping himself together up to this point. His eyes tear up at that and he bites his lip. He refuses to cry, not surrounded by CIA agents.

Clearing his throat, he says, “I'll always be there for you, Claire. Always.”

“Uh, Tomlinson,” Nelson says. “You might not want her to see what's around the corner.”

For a moment he doesn't understand what she's talking about, but then he remembers the Ugandan guards that attacked them in the corridor. Claire's all ready been through enough. She doesn't need to see dead bodies.

“Hey, Claire,” he says, stopping. “Why don't you let me carry you?” She looks at him, her forehead wrinkled. Even she knows she's getting too big for that. “Okay. I'm going to be honest with you. Around this corner are things you don't need or want to see. Let me carry you, so you can close your eyes.”

Her face smooths out then. “Okay.” She nods, lifting her arms up for him.

He lifts her up, grunting as he does. She buries her face in his neck and holds on to him tightly. Its hard to carry her and avoid stepping on bodies and slipping on blood, but he does it.

When they step out of the shack, he has to blink a couple of times to adjust his eyes to the light. There's a parked helicopter not too far off and amidst the agents surrounding it, he can see Harry pacing. Louis' still not sure it was a good idea to bring him. He doesn't even know when the decision was made or who made it, but Harry is here and Claire is alive and in his arms.

Everything is okay. 

For now.

When they get closer to Harry, he finally sees them. He freezes, eyes on them, and body slumping in relief. Louis stops, sitting Claire down. She looks up at him, head tilted. “Your daddy is over there,” he says, pointing over her shoulder.

She turns and looks. When her eyes land on Harry's she yells for him and takes off running. Harry jogs a bit toward her, stopping and stooping. He opens his arms for her as she crashes into him. 

As Louis watches the scene in front of him, he finally lets the tears fall. CIA agents be damned.

**

Harry hadn't let Claire out of his sight, even when they were on a nice, comfy plane with nowhere for her to go. He understands where Harry was coming from, but it had only been playing into Claire's fear.

It's understandable that Claire wouldn't want them to be away from her. She went through a horrible ordeal, something no child should ever have to go through. However, at some point Claire is going to have to be without them. They can't spend all their time with her, regardless of how much Louis wants to hold on to her forever. 

She's got to get over this eventually and Harry having stayed with her literally the whole day before isn't helping her. He's aware he may be coming off as uncaring and awful, but he knows what Harry staying with her like that is doing. Claire cried for an hour after they tried to get her to sleep because she knew they'd leave. Harry had given into her and stayed with her the whole night.

It had only made her clingier this morning. And he wants to be with her nonstop, but it's not practical. Of course, it's not practical to think she'd bounce back to being her normal self either, but he had hoped. Still, he thinks they should be a little stricter on not giving into her. He won't actually voice this to Harry, though.

Harry's being almost as bad as Claire. Louis gets it, understands it wholeheartedly because he's been through the same thing, but he's been able to control his actions a little more than Harry. If you can call watching his family through open doors controlling his actions. 

Anyway, he's been controlling himself better than Harry and if that makes him a horrible parent, he'll accept that. He _is_ a horrible parent. Claire wouldn't have gone through any of that had it not been for him, which is maybe why he's having an easier time of this than Harry.

He'd always expected something like this to happen and had thought about how he'd deal with it on many occasions. He'd even gone so far as to talk to a child psychologist about how to deal with this if it came down to it. Which is why he knows it's bad to give into Claire's demands that they stay with her. It'll only make her worse. She has to learn to be without them again.

Nevertheless, he wants to be with her, but he's got a job to finish out and a man to kill and this is not something he wants his family to be around. So he's sending them to their place just outside of Aberdeen that no one, but the lads know about. 

He and Harry had bought the place a couple years ago as something like a safe house – a place to go when things got too dangerous to be at home. Louis' not sure where Williams is, but he'd bet good money that he's in D.C. And on the off-chance he's not, he doesn't want to risk him knowing that Louis' family is safe at home. Aberdeen is the safest place for them. Louis will meet them there once he's finished here.

Harry doesn't seem to like that bit. Claire probably wouldn't either if she were awake.

“You come with us,” Harry says, walking around the bed and pointing at him. “It's dangerous and you've a family. Right here. That you're shipping off.”

They've been arguing about this for an hour, going round and round in circles. Harry wants Louis to come with them, Louis feels the need to finish this and neither of them can agree on anything.

“ _Because it's dangerous_ ,” Louis repeats for the fifth time. 

“Which is exactly why you should come with us,” Harry says, eyes bright and penetrating. 

“The lads need me,” Louis tells him.

“The fuck they do,” Harry spits. “They can do this without you. You aren't needed. You and I both know that's not the reason you're doing this.”

Harry has a point there. Louis won't admit. If he wants to hang back just to get revenge on Williams for kidnapping his daughter he will. Saving the President of the United States is just a plus for him. It's not his main goal, no matter how hard he tries to convince himself.

“Well, Harry,” he sighs, eyes slipping closed for a second. “Harvey or Williams – whoever the fuck he is – deserves whatever I can do to him. And, you know, the President's life is in danger, so.” 

He ends in a shrug, not looking at Harry. 

Harry groans. “If it's too dangerous for Claire and I to be here, it's too dangerous for you.”

“No,” Louis says, shaking his head. “That's not how this works. I've been through more dangerous shit than this. I can take care of myself. You and Claire cannot as much as you think you can.”

“I would prefer it if you came with us.”

“And I'd prefer it if you shut up and just did what I said.”

That was clearly the wrong thing to say if Harry's face darkening is anything to go by. Half of Louis wants to take it back, apologize for snapping, but the other half remain strong. Harry needs to realize this is a losing battle. Louis will win.

“There are two of us here, Louis,” Harry starts through gritted teeth, “and we make the decisions together. You can't just order me around.”

“I can if you're being dense.”

At some point Louis will learn to keep his mouth shut.

“Fuck you,” Harry growls. “I don't think I'm being dense for worrying about _your_ safety. How is it acceptable that you worry about Claire and I, but I can't worry about you? How is that fair? It's not. It's hypocritical.” 

“You're right,” Louis nods. “It is hypocritical, but you have to understand that I know what I'm doing. I can protect myself. But I can only do that if I know you and Claire are safe somewhere that isn't here.”

Harry seems to soften at that, shoulders slumping and mouth straightening. “Are you sure you have to be here?”

Louis nods, biting at his lip.

Running a hand through his hair, Harry says, “I'm not happy about this.”

“Neither am I,” Louis shrugs.

“Can you please just think about coming with us?” Harry pleads. “Just promise me you'll think about it.”

He has thought about it, he wants to tell Harry, but that would only lead to Harry saying he hasn't thought about it enough and that would lead to another argument. He's tired of arguing – seems like all they've done the past few weeks is argue.

He only nods, meeting Harry's eyes. Harry smiles slightly. “Thank you.”

Louis clears his throat. “I'm gonna go,” he says, nodding his head at the open door. “Gotta talk to Liam about a thing.”

Harry's pursing his lips because it's obvious Louis just wants out of the room, but Louis sees him nod as he turns to leave the room.

He stalks through the doorway, head down as he turns the corner, nearly walking into Broderick. He stops, looks up with a cocked eyebrow. Broderick's blocking the hall, arms crossed.

“Lets talk,” he says to Louis, turning on his heel and heading toward the balcony.

Louis follows after him, shaking his head. Once outside, he shuts the door behind him, wrapping his arms around himself and waiting for Broderick to talk.

“You can go with you family,” Broderick says eventually.

Louis' mouth pops open. “Uh, what?”

“You can leave with them,” Broderick reiterates. “We can do this without you here. If you want to go with Harry and Claire you can. I will personally make sure that the three of you aren't bothered by officials and you can live relatively normal lives wherever you choose to. If you choose to stay here I'll still make sure you and your family are safe once we finish here. You don't have to decide now. Just something to think about.”

With that Broderick walks around him and goes back inside.

Louis stares out over the city for a long time, pondering what Broderick said. Had he been listening in on his conversation with Harry? Not that it matters. There's a lot that Broderick said that Louis would have liked to have questioned.

He doesn't exactly know what Broderick meant when he said they'd be able to live relatively normal lives. He knows there's an arrest warrant out for them still, but that's easily taken care of. Liam could deal with it. He doesn't need a CIA agent to do it.

Louis supposes he could have been saying that Louis could stop working for good, but that's about as achievable as Harry living in space like he jokes sometimes. There's a lot Broderick left open for interpretation there, but Louis' got a feeling he doesn't want to explain since he didn't stick around long enough.

Still, though, he knows he isn't necessarily needed. The lads and Broderick have this covered. Him staying isn't going to help too much. But he does want to stick around. He doesn't want anyone else to deal with Williams. And maybe it makes him a horrible person that he plans on killing him, but everyone here, including Broderick, know that's what he's planning and none of them have tried to talk him out of it.

In spite of that, he would love nothing more than to just go with his family and never let them out of his sight again. Regardless of what he'd been saying to Harry, he hadn't really thought it was much of an option, though. He'd assumed that the lads and Broderick wanted him to see this through to the end, but Broderick has just given him out.

Now the question is whether or not Louis' need for revenge is stronger than his need to be with his family. 

He doesn't think he knows the answer to that.

**

Zayn had actually asked him. He hadn't known the answer and Zayn had been utterly unhelpful.

Louis wants revenge, but he also wants to go with his family. He has realized he doesn't really trust anyone enough to deal with Williams. It's fear that's got him questioning their ability to take him out, he thinks, because he knows the lads are more than capable of doing it and Broderick works for the goddamn CIA. If anyone was competent of doing it it's one of the five of them.

Be that as it may, Louis isn't sure he can let them do it. He's scared they'll muck it up, that Williams will somehow get by them all and come for his family again. There's a part of him that truly thinks he's the only one able to take him out. He also just wants to be with his family.

He can't do both. He has to make a decision. Zayn hadn't been any help. Liam had only stared at him for a full five minutes before shaking his head and retreating quickly out of the room, leaving Louis to stare after him in confusion.

Hopefully, Niall will be of some help.

So far, he hasn't been.

He's mostly repeated the things Louis has all ready thought.

“I mean, like, do you want to trust someone else to-.”

“Niall, this really isn't helping,” Louis says, dropping his head to the table. “I've thought about all this. I don't know,” he adds, voice muffled.

He can't be sure, but he thinks Niall's frowning at him. “The thing you got to think about Louis, is this could be the last time you see them if you stay.”

Before he can really think about it, he hears Niall scoot his chair away from the table and walk out of the room. He sits up and yells, “Okay, but that doesn't help either!”

Except, it might. 

Only not really.

He knows if he stays it could be the last time he sees them, but at least they'd know he died protecting them and he'd know they were safe. It's not helpful in any way and Niall-.

Niall's a fucking genius.

“You're a genius, Niall!” he yells, earning a “whoop” from him.

Louis actually knows what he's going to do. Telling Harry won't be easy.

**

Claire had gone to bed hours ago and Harry had retreated to their room. Louis hasn't seen him since, has been putting off talking to him because he knows they're just going to argue more. And he knows Harry's doing the same thing because tomorrow is the State Dinner. A decision has to be made.

Sighing, Louis pushes himself off the sofa, ignoring the pitying look Niall shoots him because Niall doesn't know shit and walks down the hall. The door to their room is open and he stops in the doorway.

Harry's packing, humming a tune he's making up. Louis can't tell if it's only his clothes or if it's both of theirs. It doesn't matter much, anyway. Regardless of how tomorrow goes Louis doesn't need clothes in DC.

He doesn't know how long he stands there, silently watching Harry, before Harry finally turns and sees him. They stare at each other for a minute before Harry's face falls. 

“You're staying, aren't you?”

Louis lets out a loud exhale through his nose as he takes a couple steps into the room, shutting the door behind him. Harry watches him quietly as he walks to the other side of the room, looking out the window.

“I have to finish this,” he says, watching the first few drops of rain fall before it breaks out into a downpour. “I want you and Claire to be safe. If something happens to me it won't be the worst thing for you two.”

“Fuck that!” Harry growls. He crosses the room quickly, grabbing Louis by the elbow and spinning him around and pushing him against the window. Louis' hands immediately curl around Harry's biceps. “Losing _you_ would be the worst thing to happen to us,” he continues, his warm breath hitting Louis' face. “Don't be stupid,” he adds softly. “We need you.”

Louis bites his bottom lip, eyes closed tight. “I have to make sure he's not going to hurt either of you again,” he admits softly. “And, like, saving an innocent man's life, you know. Someone has to make sure they don't fuck up.”

When he opens his eyes, Harry's watching him with warm eyes. “They'd be perfectly fine without you.”

It doesn't sound like he's arguing, just sounds resigned, like he knows Louis' made up his mind and won't budge. Louis has. He doesn't know that, though.

Suddenly, Louis feels overwhelmed with love for this man before him. It happens sometimes, when he can't even believe that he's gotten to know Harry, gotten to have him, gotten to have a family with him, and he doesn't know what to do with that. Sometimes he feels like crying when it happens, sometimes he just needs to be close to him.

He pushes himself up on his toes and kisses him. Harry's caught off-guard, but he responds quickly enough, bracing himself with a hand on the window, his other hand snaking up Louis' arm to cup his neck. The kiss isn't anything spectacular, doesn't last long, but Louis still feels dizzy when he pulls away.

Harry sighs. “Look, I understand why you're doing it,” he starts, voice quiet, “but that doesn't mean I'm happy about it.”

Louis lets his head fall forward, landing on Harry's shoulder. “I love you,” he says into Harry's shirt. “I love you so fucking much.”

Wrapping his arms tightly around him, Harry says, “I love you, too. So much sometimes I don't know what to do about it.”

“That makes two of us,” Louis huffs out, pulling away so he can stare up at Harry. “Can we just not talk? Please?”

He's not sure why, but he's got a feeling this could be the last night they spend together. It's a thought that's always in the back of his mind before he goes on a job, but it's never been this prominent before. It's a scary thing, feeling it this much and if it is going to be their last night together, he's going to be damn sure they're as close as they can be. He doesn't want to spend the night arguing.

Not that he wants to spend any night arguing with Harry, but things have been difficult between them lately. Louis wants one night with Harry where it's easy.

“Of course,” Harry nods. “You have anything in mind that doesn't involve talking?” he asks, the corner of his mouth turning up.

Louis almost smacks him for it, but his mind was all ready there. It's been so long since they've been together in that way and his mind is telling him they'll never have another chance at it. He's probably being paranoid about it, but it's a _feeling_ and his feelings are usually pretty spot on, which is scary to think about in this context, so he's not going to.

“You're horrible,” Louis says, smiling back. “Absolutely horrible.”

Harry smirks down at him. “You were. See. I wasn't wrong.”

“Just shut up and kiss me.”

It sounded sadder than he'd intended, but Harry doesn't question it, thankfully. He closes the distance between them, pushing Louis back against the window and kissing him with a desperate tone to it. Louis wraps his arms around Harry's neck, pulling him as close as he can get, then wraps his legs around Harry's waist, letting Harry hold him against the window.

Harry sucks Louis' lower lip into his mouth and bites down gently, dragging a soft moan out of Louis. He trails a hand up into Harry's hair and pulls, Harry whining and rolling his hips against Louis' crotch. Louis pulls away, pressing kisses to Harry's jawline.

When Louis starts sucking a love bite on Harry's collarbone, Harry groans, the grip he has on Louis' waist tightening. He's sure it'll leave bruises, but he doesn't care, continuing to suck.

He finishes there, presses a soft kiss to the bite and pulls back, staring Harry in the eye. His eyes are dark with lust as they stare at each other for a minute. Harry eventually pecks a quick kiss to his lips and pulls him away from the way, walking toward the bed. He lays Louis down gently, climbing over him.

Louis' having a difficult time breathing, only gets worse when Harry leans over him, his hair falling around both their faces. When Harry kisses him again, his tongue snakes into Louis' mouth and it's wet and messy and a bit desperate, but Louis doesn't care, tightening his hold in Harry's hair.

Harry starts grinding down slowly, the outline of his cock hard around Louis', and the hand not holding him up sneaking under Louis' t-shirt and rubbing at his stomach. Louis lets out a low whine and rolls his hips up, trying to get more friction.

They stay that way for a while before Harry finally pulls away, sitting up, his bum on Louis' crotch as he pulls his shirt off, throwing it to the floor. He doesn't waste time leaning back down and kissing Louis more, his hands pulling at the waistband of Louis' pajama bottoms. Louis lifts his bum up, letting Harry pull them off him, adding the to the floor.

“Want you so bad,” Harry murmurs, palming at Louis' dick. “Been so long.”

Louis goes to agree, but Harry kisses him again, mouth soft. “Gonna fuck you,” Harry continues and Louis expects some more dirty talk, but Harry pulls back completely, saying, “So I'm gonna have to go find some lube.”

Louis groans, throwing an arm over his face as Harry climbs off him and walks toward the door. Of course, they hadn't thought to pack any when they'd hastily left London. It's not like their minds had been on that. Harry leaves the room, leaving the door barely cracked.

He decides to take his pants off, adding them to the pile of clothes, and starts working a hand over himself slowly, biting at his bottom lip to keep quiet. It's been so long since he's gotten off – even longer since he and Harry have done it together – that he feels like he could come any second.

He doesn't know how long Harry's gone, barely registers him coming back in and shutting the door behind him, his face pink.

“Had to go to Niall,” he says, tossing the lube on the bed next to Louis. “Wasn't even sure if he had it and now he knows what we're doing. He's gonna take the piss.”

“Don't care,” Louis mumbles, watching as Harry takes the rest of his clothes off. “I'm gonna finish myself off if you don't get over here.”

Harry smirks, eyes flicking to Louis' dick. “Stop,” he says, climbing back on the bed and pulling Louis' legs apart. Louis does stop, letting his hands fall to his sides. “Gonna make this feel good, baby,” Harry says, grabbing the lube and presses kisses to the insides of Louis' thighs.

“Oh stop that,” Louis tells him, smacking at his head lightly. 

Harry lets out a soft laugh, biting down. Louis hisses, hips jerking up. Harry reaches up and presses him down into the mattress, uncapping the lube with his other hand.

Louis jerks when he feels Harry's cold fingers against his hole. He's teases him for a long time, never entering him. He does it for a long time until Louis grinds against him, giving him a death glare.

Smirking up at him, Harry finally sticks a finger in up to his first knuckle. He's slower when he pushes into the second knuckle, dropping his head down to kiss at his thighs more. He slowly pumps his finger in and out, eventually adding another, scissoring them.

Louis' letting out little whimpers, his hips jerking up when Harry barely brushes his prostate. Harry goes at it some more, adding a third finger when Louis' ready. 

“Love you so much,” Louis mutters, hands gripping the duvet beside him. “So so much.”

Harry stills, glancing up at him, eyes searching. He doesn't verbally respond, but he removes his fingers, climbing up Louis and pressing another desperate kiss to his mouth. Louis still wearing his t-shirt and Harry wipes hie fingers against it. He pulls away from Louis and starts grabbing at it. 

“Come on,” he says, trying to pull it off him. “Want this off.”

“Nah,” Louis says. “Thought I'd keep it on. Makes things more interesting.”

“ _Shut up_ ,” Harry pleads. “ _Come on_.”

Louis pulls himself up, pecking Harry on the cheek as Harry pulls the shirt off him, throwing it aside. Once he's disposed of it, he wraps a hand around Louis' neck and kisses him deeply again, his other hand trapped between them, resting on Louis chest.

Harry eventually pulls away, grabbing the lube and slicking up his dick. Louis lets himself fall back on the mattress, watching as Harry leans over him, lining himself up.

“Love you so fucking much,” he mumbles against Louis' lips as he slowly pushes in. 

Louis gasps, hands scratching at Harry's back. When he's in all the way, hips nestled against his arse, he stills, grabbing Louis' wrists in one hand and pressing them to the mattress above Louis' head, his other hand bracing him.

He slowly pulls out, muttering incomprehensible things into Louis' mouth, then pushes back in even slower than before. He keeps that pace an Louis feels fuzzy and wants to touch Harry, wants to be as close as possible, but Harry's got other plans, keeping his hands firmly above his head.

Harry continues his slow pace. He's not kissing Louis anymore, just staring at him, breath fanning out over Louis' face. Louis wants more, wants to get a hand on himself, or touch Harry, but Harry just keeps slowly fucking into him.

Just as Louis' about to tell him off for not doing more, Harry leans down, pressing his lips to Louis' throat. He lets go of Louis' wrists and he immediately grabs at Harry's back again, scratching at him, trying to pull him closer, trying to get him to move faster, to give him more.

He's certainly not expecting it when Harry flips them over, slipping out of Louis. “Come on,” he says, staring up at Louis with wide eyes. “Give this to me, _please_.”

They've had sex hundreds of times over the years, with various moods, but it's never felt so heavy as this, never felt so breakable. And if Louis was feeling like this was their last time before, he certainly does now and it seems Harry's feeling it too.

Louis nods, reaching behind him and grabbing Harry's cock, guiding it into himself. Once he's fully seated, he places his hands on Harry's chest for leverage and starts moving his hips in little circle eights.

He starts rocking back and forth, biting his lip as Harry stares up at him, breath coming out hard and loud. Louis pushes himself almost completely off Harry, then slowly sins back down. He repeats the motion over and over, his thighs burning as he continues to bounce on Harry's cock.

Harry's got his fingers wrapped around Louis' waist, not doing anything, but sitting there and Louis can feel his orgasm building as he starts moving in eights again, sloppier than before.

“So fucking beautiful,” Harry mutters, lips swollen and red from where he's been biting them. “Love you so fucking much.”

Harry's cock is hitting his prostate every time and he's having a hard time keeping himself up, but he moves quicker, whining every time he comes down.

Harry must be able to tell Louis' struggling because he tightens his grip on Louis' hips and stops him from moving. “Wait, wait. Pull off for a moment.” Louis does, settling on his knees between Harry's legs. “Get on your back again. Want you like that.”

He's not sure Harry really knows what he wants, but he listens, settling back on his back again. Harry leans over him, guiding his cock in quicker than before. Louis wraps his legs around Harry's waist, pulling him as close as he can and Harry grabs his wrists again, holding them over his head.

Harry's thrusts are quick and sloppy, hitting Louis' prostate every time, as he stares into Louis' eyes. 

“Love you,” Louis chokes out.

Harry kisses him, though it's not really a kiss. His mouth just hovers over Louis' breathing air into him, eyes still open and focused on Louis'.

It doesn't take much longer until Louis' coming, shooting between their chests and mumbling a string of curses and “love you's” into Harry's mouth as Harry continues thrusting into him, chasing his own orgasm.

When Harry's orgasm hits, he mutters out Louis' name, grip on Louis' wrists tightening, but he keeps his eyes open, staring into Louis' the whole time.

After, he collapses onto Louis, slipping out of him and letting go of Louis' wrists. Louis wraps a hand in Harry's hair and positions Harry's head so he can kiss him. Louis' come is squished between them and he can feel Harry's seeping out of him, but he doesn't care, just continues kissing Harry slowly and muttering “I love you” between kisses.

Eventually, Louis stops kissing him and Harry reaches over the bed and grabs one of their t-shirts, wiping them off before throwing it back to the floor. 

Harry presses another kiss to Louis' mouth before turning to his side, back to Louis. Louis rolls his eyes, but turns so he can press his chest to Harry's back, pulling them together.

“I love you so fucking much,” he whispers into Harry's hair. “If you only know one thing about me please let it be that.”

Harry grabs Louis' hand that's wrapped around his chest and squeezes. “Of course, I know that,” he replies just as quietly as Louis. “And I love you too, in case that wasn't known.”

“It was,” Louis tells him, squeezing his eyes shut when they start to water. “I've always known that.”

Harry hums, nearly asleep and Louis pulls him closer.

It's not much longer before Harry's snoring lightly. 

It takes Louis three hours to fall asleep, wrapped around Harry as tightly as possible.

**

They drive to the airport is spent in silence, except for the radio playing softly in the background. Claire's in the back of the rental, nearly asleep because it's so early. Harry's in the passenger seat, staring out the window, biting at his nail.

He's opened his mouth several times to say something, but snapped it shut when he couldn't think of what to say. There's not much to say really. He's sending Harry and Claire away so he can risk his life yet again. It could be the last time he sees his family. Yet, he can't think of anything to say aside from “I love you” over and over again.

It's not until they're on the tarmac and Louis' pulling Harry and Claire's bags out of the car that the silence is broken. Claire's the one to do it, sleepily climbing out of the car.

“I've missed Dog,” she mumbles, rubbing at her eye. 

“I'm sure she's missed you, too,” Louis tells her, shutting the door. Crouching down in front of her, loosely gripping her arms, he says, “You'll be good for your father, right?”

She nods, rolling her eyes. “I'm always good.”

“That you are,” Louis agrees, the corners of his mouth pulling up. 

“You're coming home, right?”

Biting at his lip, he glances up and over Claire's shoulder. Harry's watching, his demeanor resigned. It seems they're both on the same page. There's no guarantee Louis' making it out of this alive. There's no guarantee he isn't, either, but they both know his luck will run out eventually. They've held on to his luck for too long and he can't push away his bad feeling anymore. 

It's staying at the forefront of his mind and there's only so long he can ignore a feeling like this. Burning and overpowering. Maybe he should listen to it and get on this plane with his family.

He can't do that, though.

He turns his attention back to Claire. “Of course, love.”

She nods slightly, then throws herself at him. He nearly falls back with the force of it, but he doesn't, wrapping his arms around her tightly, mumbling “I love you” into her hair.

They let go eventually, Claire sniffling as she turns away from him and goes to stand near their bags, waiting for Harry.

Louis stands, eyes on Harry. “This is dramatic,” he teases, though his tone is anything but.

Harry sighs, closing the distance between them. Louis falls into him easily, burying his face in Harry's shoulder, breathing him in. They'd said their good-bye's this morning – early this morning since it's still only eight. It'd been emotional and some tears had been shed.

Harry keeps telling him it isn't good-bye. Louis isn't so sure.

“Promise me you'll be okay?” Harry whispers into his ear. “Promise me, you'll come home.”

He doesn't think he's going home and he hates lying, but if he doesn't promise Harry will manhandle him onto the plane and strap him down so he can't escape somehow.

“Of course, I promise,” he breathes out, pulling away a bit. “You and Claire mean everything to me.”

Harry nods, frowning. “I love you.”

Louis pushes himself up a bit and presses a quick kiss to Harry's mouth. “I love you, too. Now get on that plane.”

It takes Harry two whole minutes before he releases Louis and walks away. It takes a minute for him and Claire to board the private jet Broderick had arranged for them. From there, Louis doesn't know how long he stands there, watching as the jet finally takes off.

He drives back to the hotel without really thinking. He doesn't think about how that could have been the last time he saw his family. He doesn't think about what they'll do without him. He doesn't think about anything other than tonight.

The State Dinner is tonight and they don't have much of a plan. Hell, the lads don't even know he's staying. For all they know he could be on that plane right now.

He probably should be.

After he's shut the door to the hotel room, he turns, taking in the sight in front of him. Broderick and the lads are spread out through the room, various weapons laid out and Liam's laptops open on the coffee table. 

Broderick doesn't spare him much of a look before going back to cleaning his gun. The others aren't as easy to get past. Zayn's frowning at him, looking very much like he disapproves of Louis being there. Niall just looks sad, while Liam regards him with a furrowed brow.

“You didn't go with them?” he asks as Louis walks into the room.

“Obviously not,” Louis replies, going straight to the bar and pouring himself a drink.

“I thought you would have.”

“Well, I didn't,” he says before downing the whole drink, relishing in the way it burns his throat. He sets the glass back down, taking a deep breath. Turning around, he asks, “So what's the plan?”

**

The plan is no plan at all.

That's not necessarily true. There is a plan, but it's not a very reliable since they still don't have as much information as they would like. There's no way for them to know how many people are truly involved in this and how many of those people will be there tonight. They don't have any clue what they're up against.

It's only causing a bit of uncertainty and a pinch of worry. They're soldiering through.

The plan, what little of they have of one, goes like this: Liam and Zayn go in first, disguised as Secret Service. They'll watch the President closely and at the first sign of trouble, get him out. (This caused some arguing since Liam usually isn't involved in this part, but Broderick had sworn that his tech guys had his job covered and he'd prefer to have Liam on the inside. Eventually Broderick had won that.) 

Niall and Louis will follow with Broderick. Niall and Broderick are in charge of finding the finding the bad guys and alerting everyone else when something starts to go down. Only three of Broderick's agents, including Nelson, are in the building, waiting on instruction.

Louis job is slightly different than the rest. He is here to help in whatever way he can, but his main goal is to find Williams. Logically, he knows Williams may not be here, but if he is Louis isn't going to pass up the chance to dispose of him himself. The man fucked with his family. He's not getting away with it easily.

“Normally, I wouldn't let civilians in on this,” Broderick tells them as they pass through security undisturbed.

Niall snorts. “We're hardly civilians.”

“Fair enough.”

“All right, lads, we're in.”

Louis hears Liam and Zayn and the agents mumble in acknowledgment.

Right when they step into the Entrance Hall, the band starts up the music, signaling the President's and the Prime Minister of Bhutan entering the room. Everyone stops, watching and listening to the band as _Hail to the Chief ___changes into someone singing the National Anthem.

By the end of the whole thing, Louis is antsy, can barely stand still. He's searched the room over three times with no sign of Williams anywhere. He'd spotted Zayn and Liam hovering near the staircase the President had entered through. They'd at least seemed to be enjoying the music.

Once the music completely stops and the guests start mingling, Louis turns to Broderick and Niall. “What are the chances they attack before dinner?”

Broderick shrugs. “Could be before. Could be during the speeches Could be during the dinner. Could be during the after dinner entertainment.”

“Do you know anything?”

“Not really.”

Niall narrows his eyes. “I'm gonna check the other rooms. See if anyone is hiding out.”

He doesn't wait for an answer before walking off. Broderick stares after him, eyebrow cocked. “Does he really think he can stroll through the White House like that?”

Louis turns, seeing Niall as he disappears out a door. “If anyone can, it'd be him.”

Broderick lets out an impressed sound. 

They start slowly making their way around the room, staying in silence. Once they make it through the whole perimeter once, they start making their way toward the middle of the room.

Nelson had disappeared a while ago, has been silent the whole time, which is why Louis nearly jumps when he hears her voice.

“Broderick, you should know that none of the people on our list are here.”

“Are you absolutely sure?”

“Of course.”

Louis isn't sure what that means, but neither of them seem happy about it and when he spots Nelson near the entrance she's frowning hard, eyes boring into his.

“Wouldn't that mean they aren't attempting anything tonight?” Liam asks.

“Not necessarily,” Broderick answers.

“Most of them weren't even invited,” Zayn adds. “But the ones who were should be here. You don't just turn down an invitation to the White House, even if it is for a State Dinner.”

“Malik's right,” Broderick says. “Something's not right and I don't like it. Be on guard.”

It's almost time for the food, the only time the President is mostly secluded from everyone else is during his speech. Louis guesses if they were going to go the traditional route and shoot him, it'd be then. He can't be sure, though.

He and Broderick split up and almost immediately Niall's speaking. “Uh, Lou, I found Williams.”

Louis pauses, face hardening. “Where?”

“He just went into the East Room.”

“There's where the music is later,” Nelson says.

“Right,” Louis says, turning on his heel. “Leave him to me,” he adds, stomping toward the room.

“Be careful, Lou,” Zayn says.

He doesn't bother responding, doesn't even bother pretending to be sorry when he walks into a woman causing her to spill her drink down her expensive dress.

The East Room is empty when he gets in there. The chairs set up for later and instruments set up at the front of the room. He's beginning to think Niall was mistaken because he doesn't see anyone in the room, but the room is big and darkly lit and he eventually spots Williams near the fireplace.

“Ah, Mr. Tomlinson,” Williams starts, taking a step toward him. “Didn't I tell you to stay out of it?”

Louis cocks an eyebrow. “Yes, you did, but I got my daughter back. You have nothing over me now.”

Williams purses his lips, nodding. “True, but realize that once I get out of here I will come after both Claire and Harry.” They start slowly circling each other as Williams speaks. “And there won't be anything you can do about it because you'll be dead.”

“I wouldn't be so sure,” Louis tells him through gritted teeth, hand reaching back for his gun he'd managed to get past security. He's still not sure how Broderick managed that one. “I don't think I'll be the dead one.”

Williams shrugs. “Fair enough. If we keep up like this, we'll both be dead.”

Pulling his gun out and pointing it, he asks, “What do you mean?”

“I don't think you have time to dispose of me and get everyone out before the bomb is detonated.”

Louis pulse picks up. He needs to let the others know, but he can't just repeat Williams. He has no idea how many people Williams has here with him. “Bomb?” he asks.

In his ear, he hears Broderick swear and Liam and Zayn start hashing out the details of getting the President out. There, he thinks. That did the job.

Williams hums. “I'd say we have about ten minutes before it's set to go off. I was hoping to be well away from here before then.”

“Then let me kill you and you won't have to worry about it,” he retorts, ignoring the sound of chaos in his ear.

“Not that easy.”

Louis cocks an eyebrow. “Isn't it?”

Before Williams can respond, Louis shoots him in the knee. He yells out in pain, dropping to the floor and clutching at his knee, blood spilling out everywhere.

“That's for my daughter,” Louis says, clearing his throat and stepping forward.

What he's doing is risky because anyone could walk in and misread the situation, but from what he can hear it sounds like the others have done a good job of creating a diversion. There's a lot of screaming and shouting.

He continues walking forward, stopping when he's directly in front of Williams. He doesn't pay any attention to Louis as he whimpers and continues pressing on his knee.

Louis rolls his eyes. “Well, this is pathetic,” he says, bracing himself to aim a kick to Williams' face. 

He falls onto his back, grimacing and spitting out blood. Louis moves to stand over him and he tries to push himself up, but Louis kicks him again and pins his arm under his shoe. His hand is sticking out, fingers curled up and Louis aims his gun and shoots.

Blood goes everywhere and Williams yells out again. As Louis pulls his foot off, cradles his arm to his chest. 

There's a part of Louis that wants to drag this out as long as possible, but, according to Williams, there's a bomb that's set to go off in under ten minutes. He doesn't have the kind of time he wants right now. He'll just have to make this short and effective.

Crouching over him, Louis points his gun at Williams' head. “You used me and my friend and then you used my daughter against me. I don't appreciate that and I'd like to tear you apart bit by bit.”

Williams lets out a couple of whimpers, eyes squeezed shut. “Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time, so I'll have to end this quickly.”

Louis gets closer, whispering, “This is for my family and I hope you burn in hell, you son of a bitch.”

He stands up quickly, pointing his gun just as Williams opens his eyes. Louis barely registers the fear there before pulling the trigger.

Walking toward the door, Louis says, “Williams is dealt with.”

“Zayn and Liam got the President out,” Niall tells him. “Hurry up and get your arse out here, Louis. We don't have much time.”

“Hear you loud and clear, Niall.”

When he gets into the hall, is less crowded than before, but there's people running everywhere, shouting things he can't make out. He sees Niall first.

He's standing close to the wall, eyes searching frantically, but when he spots Louis, he visibly relaxes. “Dick.”

“I heard that, you know,” Louis tells him, shuffling through the crowd of people heading toward the door. When he reaches Niall, he says, “I thought the deal with a bomb threat was everyone stays in place.”

“Not a threat, though,” Niall tells him regretfully. “They found it. Can't shut it down in time.”

Louis starts to respond, but is cut off by Broderick coming up behind him and clapping him on the shoulder. “All right, think we're done here. Lets go.”

And it should be that simple, he thinks, and it seems it is, but he's still got a sinking feeling in his stomach as he follows Niall and Broderick toward the door. He's probably just worrying too much. After all, once he finishes here he can go home and be with Harry and Claire without a problem. He's not used to thinking that way, is all it is.

When they're nearing the doors, Niall stops abruptly, Louis nearly walking into him. “What the hell is your problem?”

Niall doesn't answer, doesn't even acknowledge as he turns and starts toward the staircase. Louis sighs, rolling his eyes, but turns, eyes widening as he sees a little girl – around five or so – huddled near the banister, crying. 

Niall's approaching her slowly, speaking to her softly. She doesn't seem scared of him, only of the situation.

“Why the hell would you leave a child here?” Louis questions.

Broderick hums. “No idea, but I doubt they even realize she's not with them.”

“Maybe not.”

Finally, the girl lets Niall pick her up and he starts toward them. “Lads, this is Sarah,” he says, motioning to her with his free hand. “Sarah's parents were separated from her before the guests went into the Dining Room.”

That makes it a bit better, Louis supposes. Although, now there's a couple of panicking parents somewhere. “Well, we gotta get her to them, shouldn't we?” Louis says, smiling at her.

She sniffles, wiping at her nose. “I lost my bear,” she says.

“Aw,” Louis draws out. “Do you know where?”

“Louis,” Niall grits out. “We don't have time for this. We need to-.”

Louis ignores him, addressing Sarah again. “Where'd you leave your bear?”

“The table,” she answers. 

“There, see,” he says, stepping away and facing Niall. “She left it at the table. Probably in the dining room. I'll go get it and I'll be out in no time.”

Niall huffs out a breath. “Louis, this isn't a good idea. We don't have much time left and we need to get out.”

“The more time we stand around arguing about this the less time we have,” he argues. 

“Why is this important?” Niall inquires, shifting Sarah to his other side. “She can just get another bear.”

Louis sighs, reminding himself Niall isn't a parent. “Claire had a stuffed cat once. She loved that thing, carried it everywhere. We went to Toronto once and Harry forgot to grab it when we left. Claire was sleeping so she hadn't realized she didn't have it. She'd never been that upset before.” He shrugs. “Kids don't-. It's a thing, okay? She wants her bear, I'll get her her bear.”

Niall's face softens. “Fine, but hurry the fuck up.”

He turns and stomps toward the door. Broderick smirks at Louis as he follows after him. Rolling his eyes, Louis heads for the dining room. He jogs there, throwing himself through the open doors and starts searching. He's not sure how much time he has before the bomb is set to go off, but he knows he has another couple minutes at least. 

It doesn't take him long to find the bear. It's a brown and grey one that's been knocked the floor and kicked nearly under a table completely. It's cute, but nothing special. Still, he smiles when he grabs it, heading toward the exit as quickly as he came.

He's nearly out of the building when his bad feeling hits him full force and almost a full second later when the building explodes around him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry. There's another chapter.
> 
> Also, please don't blow up the White House.
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


	5. I'll See You in the Future when We're Older

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louis has a massive decision to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, so this one is over. As I said previously, there will be one last part to this series, so keep that in mind.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's read this.

When he wakes up, it's slowly, barely slitting his eyes open because of the bright light that engulfs him. There's a quiet sound of machines and a rhythmic beeping and he knows before he opens his eyes fully that he didn't die. He's very much alive, the slight pain in his wrist enough to make sure he knows that. He didn't die and he can see Harry and Claire again. He didn't die and he's in a hospital, probably.

Eyes still barely open, he clears his throat, wincing when it burns. “Are you actually awake this time?” a voice to his right asks. Louis squeezes his eyes tightly shut, swallowing. When he finally opens his eyes completely, he sees the door to his room. It's shut, but he can see through a small window on it that there seems to be some sort of security outside guarding the door.

His heart rate picks up at that, eyes widening. He can't be arrested, not now. Not when he's overcome so much and not when he's got Claire and Harry waiting for him.

“Don't worry about them,” the voice says, sensing his panic. “They're here to protect you.”

Louis blinks, turning his head to the right. It's Broderick because, of course, it is. He's propped in the chair next to Louis' bed, suit jacket slung over the back of it. He's scratching at his light stubble when he continues, “I know that doesn't make much sense at the moment.”

Throat still hurting, Louis only cocks an eyebrow in response. Broderick lets out a breath, sitting straighter. He reaches over to the bedside table, grabbing a pitcher of water and an empty plastic cup. Once the cup is half full, he passes it over to Louis.

“Drink up.”

Louis gives him a small nod as a thank you, basically gulping down the water. His throat still hurts, but it's better.

“Anyway, we're still not sure how many people were involved in the assassination plot of the President,” Broderick resumes, sitting back in his seat. “Some of them have probably gotten away and are none to happy that we foiled their plan. You, being unconscious in a hospital bed, were a prime target for them as revenge. Wanted to make sure you were safe.”

“Thanks,” Louis croaks out. He meant for it to be more of a lilting tone to it, but he can only manage so much. Glancing down at his body, he sees a cast around his left wrist, but no other physical injuries are present and he wonders how close he actually came to dying in that explosion.

He means to ask, but then he remembers the others. Surely, if Louis is some sort of target for a revenge plot, the others would be too and they aren't here with him. “The lads?” he asks, voice marginally steadier than before.

“We're keeping them safe and away from you for multiple reasons,” Broderick answers. “Your friends have been recognized as national heroes by the United States government.”

“Uh, what?”

Broderick shits in his seat, crossing his legs. “The President's life was in danger because of other politicians and no one knew. You four saved him,” he explains. “Malik and Payne were seen with the President. You know, with all the technology it was impossible for people not to get a look at them. Horan was seen too, meeting up with the others. The public wanted to know who they were and we told them. And they're heroes.”

Maybe it's because he's groggy from having just woken up, but what Broderick is saying doesn't make any sense to him. The lads would not allow their names in the media for any reason – at least he didn't think they would. Who knows how long he's been out and what's happened in that time frame. 

Still, it's almost laughable thinking about them being seen as heroes. They're far from it, especially since Niall and himself were partly responsible for this having gone so far.

“The public knows there was a fourth person, but we've kept your name out of it.”

Louis' brow furrows. “Why?” he questions, wondering if it has to do with Harry and Claire.

Uncrossing his legs, Broderick sits up again. “We've offered Malik, Payne, and Horan positions here at the CIA. We'd prefer their names and faces not be known, but, as I said, there was video of them with the President.”

“Okay?” Louis draws out, not seeing the connection.

“We've got a position for you, if you want,” Broderick begins, “but we'd like to protect your identity. If you do take the position, we'll fake your death.” 

Louis snorts, immediately wincing at the pain in his throat and abdomen. “Again?” 

“We want to use you in a way we can't use the others.” 

“What? Like undercover work?” 

“No, we've got a, uh-.” Broderick cuts himself off, clearing his throat. “There's no other way for me to say this, but a secret agency. We don't want word getting out to the public about it.”

Louis' mouth pops open, but no sound comes out. A secret agency? No fucking way. Obviously, he doesn't understand. It doesn't make sense why they'd want him or why that means he needs to fake his death _again_. He doesn't even know what kind of agency this is. Or why it seems the lads have agreed.

Surely they know they can't trust anyone, even if it is a secret agency in the states. It's far too dangerous trusting other people. Louis knows that from firsthand experience. Even not trusting someone can lead to danger.

“I don't-. I don't really understand,” Louis says, scratching at his head. “What on earth are you saying?”

“I am the head of the agency, Tomlinson,” Broderick says. “We deal with more international crimes. We're like an off-shoot of the CIA.”

“Is that why the office was so weird?”

Broderick nods. “Partly. Wasn't our main office.” He pauses, taking a breath. “A lot of times the cases we deal with target internationally known criminals , not unlike yourself. Groups, really. The difference is that they're more dangerous, not only to the people they target, but to everyone. They're a threat to the whole world. Just last year we took out a group who'd perfected making an atomic bomb at home and planned to wipe out most of western Europe with it.”

Louis' eyebrows raise, eyes widening. He'd not heard anything about that. Although, he supposes he wouldn't have. Alerting the public would have caused panic and panic is never good.

“We're completely under the radar,” he continues. “While we are a branch of the CIA, we operate like our own separate entity. Mostly that's because a lot of the time we have to resort to less than moral actions. Our agents can spend months at a time undercover, performing duties they're not always comfortable with so we can bring down the bad guys. We were the ones that took out ISIS years ago.”

“Uh-huh,” Louis nods.

“We have a lot of information, too, about just about every world leader. We know every skeleton in their closet and every bad thing they've ever done. More leaders than you would think are not good people. Many, like what we've seen here, are planning big things. Think dictator sort of things, but worse than the likes of Hitler.”

“Right.”

“Point is, we protect the people, but the people would not be happy or comfortable with some of the measures we have to take in order to protect them. Not to mention, the potential of an imminent threat is too much for them,” Broderick concludes. “That's why we stay secret. We can't let the public know that the nightmare scenario is closer than they think. Panic would ensue and with that panic things would only go bad quicker.” 

He pauses again, cracking his neck. “Williams – or Harvey, depending on what you want to call him – found out about us and threatened to go public when he was fired from the CIA. That's why I knew of him, why I knew what he was planning. I had an undercover agent keep tabs on him, but, unfortunately, I had no solid evidence. And now we're here.”

Louis narrows his eyes. He gets what Broderick is saying, he does, but it's just so absurd he's having a hard time believing it. There's this man sitting in front of him, saying he's part of a secret agency that know things that would cause great panic everywhere in the world, saying that his friends have agreed to work for this agency and that they're offering him a job as well. The very same man that helped him get his daughter back.

It's a lot to take in.

He's not sure what happening.

“I'm head of the department, so I can say these things to you,” Broderick tells him. “Which also means, I have the authority to hire whoever I want and I'm saying we've got a position open for you. Mr. Malik has put in a good word for you.” 

Louis cocks an eyebrow, “Not Liam or Niall?” 

“Mr. Malik's word means more to me. He's taking over my job when I retire in the next two or three years.”

That's a bit surprising. Louis hadn't thought Broderick was that old, but maybe working in this sort of capacity is more harrowing than normal. Well, he's sure it is. Most people probably wouldn't last long doing it. 

“I want to know my department will be in good hands, Mr. Tomlinson. Malik will do a fine job, but I want him to hire you as his second in command. Payne and Horan have signed on as well.”

“What's this got to do with faking my death?” Louis asks hesitantly.

“We need your identity to be kept quiet because you'd be the one leading the field work. It's why we'll fake your death.” 

Broderick pauses, pulling out a piece of paper and reading from it. “Unfortunately, Mr. Tomlinson passed away after two weeks of being in a medically induced coma. Tomlinson leaves behind no family as his daughter and husband were killed in a plane crash on their way to DC to see him.” He stops, folds the paper and puts it back in his pocket. “Tragic, but that's what will be published tomorrow if you agree.” 

Louis' silent. He's faked his death before, read his own obituary and everything, but this is different – affects him differently. He doesn't mind faking his death, not really. Not if it means it would be safer, but what he's not okay with – what he doesn't understand – is faking Harry and Claire's deaths.

“Why fake Harry and Claire's death?” he asks, licking at his lips. They're horribly chapped.

“Unfortunately,” he starts, grimly, “if you take this position, you'll have to stay away from your family. It'd probably be better if they think you did die. And it'd be better for the public to think your family is dead because on the off-chance someone does want revenge on you and the others for this, they know Harry and Claire mean a lot to all of you. So regardless of your supposed death they'd go after them. And that's not even taking into consideration they could suspect you're very much alive.”

That makes a whole lot of sense actually. Louis has a lot of enemies from years of being a criminal and one of them has all ready tried to get to him by using someone he cared about. (That's not even factoring in Harvey – _Williams_ – and what he did with Claire.) He's surely made a whole other list of enemies by stopping the assassination. He supposes some of them would want revenge for some reason or another. And coming after Louis' family would be the way to do just that.

It wouldn't even matter if he were alive or dead. Rodman was a prime example of that. Even years after Harry's father's death he was still plotting revenge, took it out on Harry and everything. Harry and Claire would be safer if they were presumed dead. Still, he knows they won't see it that way, whether they think Louis' alive or dead. Harry would fight it as long and as hard as he could. 

The thing that doesn't make sense is why he would have to stay away from them.

“Why would I need to stay away from them, though? Why can't they know I'm alive?” 

“Too dangerous” Broderick says simply. When Louis raises an eyebrow, he elaborates. “The work you'd be doing is far too dangerous even for just yourself. Your family could be used against you. Williams all ready tried that. Several others have, as well. If all three of you are presumed dead then no one can be used against the others. We can't have you distracted and worried.” 

Louis narrows his eyes. “And if I don't agree?” 

“Then you can go home and be with your family, but we'll still fake your deaths, provide you with aliases and you can live out the rest of your lives, peacefully.” 

“No offense, Agent, but last time I trusted a high-up official, I ended up here.” 

“I understand, but I need an answer.” 

It's not that easy. 

On one hand, he'd like to accept. If there really are that many threats to the general public he'd like to help put a stop to that. And he won't deny that being in a position of power doesn't sound cool. He'd be working with the lads, which is always nice. It would be dangerous, but he's dealt with a lot in his life. He thinks he could handle it. The problem with it is not seeing his family. 

Harry and Claire mean the world to him. It'd kill him not being able to see or speak to them. Knowing that they were out there thinking he was dead and living their lives that way. They'd have to adjust to not only him being “dead”, but also to having every detail of their lives changed. That's a hard thing to go through and not being there with them to help them through it would be horrible. He'd constantly think about it. It'd torture him slowly and he's not sure he'd ever really be happy leaving them.

On the other hand, they would eventually get over him. They'd learn to live their new lives without him. Claire would remember him, hopefully, but she's young enough that her memories of him will fade away slowly and she'll learn to deal with. If he's lucky Harry would move on eventually, too. 

Claire is a child and, while she'll be affected, she won't remember exactly how life was like before. Harry will. He'll remember everything. He'd remember what it was like in the beginning. He'll remember those five years they were apart, coming together again, finding Claire, being a family. He'll remember and it'll never go away. He could move on, probably will at some point. Harry could find someone and learn to love again. He could find someone that loved him and Claire, someone that would provide and make everything happier. And they could start a better, happier, safer family. Something Louis would love for him and Claire to have. They deserve to be happy and safe and if it means Louis isn't around it might be worth doing.

Even if Harry did find someone else, he'd still remember Louis. And there's a part of Louis that, despite knowing Harry would be better off with someone else, is too selfish to want to let that happen. He doesn't think he's selfless enough to let that happen. He loves them entirely way too much to let go, he thinks. He'd always wonder about them, always wonder how Claire is doing in school, how she's coping with another life change. He'd worry about what Harry will do not being able to have his career that, despite never really wanting, has grown into loving and being amazing at. He'd worry about how Harry would deal with the loss of, not only Louis, but his friends as well. He'd not have anyone to turn to or to help.

Harry's a wonderfully strong, brave, smart, beautiful man, but something like this would break just about anyone at some point. Knowing that he wasn't there to help him through all this would be hell. He doesn't think he could stay away and it's clear sneaking off to see them every now and then isn't an option, especially since they'll be lead to believe he's dead. 

Is leaving Harry and Claire for good what he really wants? Probably not. Would it be better for them if he did? Probably. Could he stay away forever? No.

He'd definitely keep tabs on them, whether he was allowed to or not, and just the thought of someone coming into their lives and taking his place is enough to make him see red. He knows himself well enough to know that if that were to happen he'd show up at their door, changing everything they knew about life once again. He'd put them in danger again and would, intentionally or not, be putting Harry in a position to choose between a man he once loved and someone new, someone safer.

Louis wouldn't want to do that, but he would, meaning to or not. Showing back up into their lives wouldn't be smooth either. They'd both be pissed at him for lying and everything that's happened to them since this moment. They may never forgive him for it even if they were glad to see him. Things wouldn't go back to normal the way he'd want. There'd be someone else there and too many issues to get past. He wouldn't have his family. He'd never have his family.

He knows what his choice is.

“I, uh-.” He cuts off, taking a deep breath. “I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no. I love my family entirely way too much to leave them.”

“I understand, Mr. Tomlinson. I won't try to persuade you and I'll get started on the faking death and aliases.” 

Broderick stands and crosses the room swiftly. He's at the door when something occurs to him.

“Will I still be able to see the lads?” 

Broderick stops, turning, his hand on the doorknob. “Mr. Tomlinson, you're friends are about to take on extremely confidential, dangerous work. They can't have friends.”

Louis nods and Broderick leaves.

**

Zayn's office is in the one Broderick took them to previously so it's easy to find. No one pays him any attention as he walks through, something he's grateful for. The quicker he is here, the quicker he gets to Claire and Harry. 

The door to Zayn's office is open. Zayn's standing at his desk, hands gripping the sides, head bent as he reads through something.

“Didn't take you as the office type,” he comments from the doorway. 

Looking up, Zayn gives him a small smile. “Eh,” he shrugs. “This one's temporary. The real one is much nicer.”

Louis clears his throat, stepping in the room and shutting the door. “I wanted to thank you,” he says after a moment of them both staring at each other. “For everything you've ever done for me. For being my friend and for, in the weirdest way possible, bringing me to Harry.”

“You don't have to thank me for that,” Zayn says, brow furrowed.

“Yes, I do,” Louis nods. “Had you not gone after Harry all those years ago I would have never met him.”

“I actually meant not to thank me for being your friend,” Zayn retorts. “You _should_ thank me for your relationship with Harry.”

Louis grins. “Dick.”

Zayn's smiling back, though he make no move to come around the desk. “Seriously, though, Lou, you don't have to thank me. You're the bestest friend anyone could ask for. Bros for life and all.”

Despite his playful tone, there's a seriousness to this conversation that's inexplicable. This may very well be the last time they ever see each other. He's not ready for it – will never be ready for it – and he hates it, but it's something that must be done.

“You're leaving me,” Louis comments, the corner of his eyes watering.

“Technically, you are,” Zayn points out, his own eyes shiny. “I get it, though,” he adds quickly. “Your family is more important. I never thought you'd have to make the choice between this and your family, to be honest. Otherwise, I wouldn't have suggested you for the job.”

“Nah, don't be,” Louis tells him, shaking his head. “It gave me a lot to think about. I'm choosing the selfish option.”

“You're doing the right thing, Louis,” Zayn says vehemently. “I know there's a part of you that thinks they'd be better off without you, but they need you. They love you. It's the right decision.”

Louis' not sure how much he agrees with that – with it being the right decision – but he's doing it, so there's no point in arguing. “I know,” he says quietly. “Suppose I won't be seeing you for a while.” 

“Probably not, no.”

Zayn's around the desk and pulling Louis into him before Louis can blink. Louis hugs him back, both clinging to the other as tightly as possible. They've been friends since their very early twenties, this friendship has lasted over a decade. Louis goes to Zayn for advice, Zayn comes to Louis for whatever it is – Louis' still not sure – and it's going to be hard not having him there.

He's not fully prepared for it and it stings.

“Never doubt yourself, Louis,” Zayn mutters into his neck. “And if you're ever in trouble you know where to find me.”

Louis snorts. “Let's hope the same goes for you.”

Zayn squeezes him, the lets go. There's one single tear track running down his face. “I'll miss you.”

Louis wipes his face with the back of his hand. “Yeah, yeah, same.”

“Bye,” Zayn says with a sad smile.

When Louis gets to the door, he stops. Looking over his shoulder, he says, “Stay out of trouble, Malik.”

“Same to you, Tommo,” Zayn replies and then Louis is gone.

**

“You sure you can go the rest of your life without seeing me?” Niall questions as he's walking toward the door.

He's never been good with good-bye's, prefers to pretend it isn't happening. Louis was surprised to see him show up with Liam, had half-expected him to stay away because that would be it wasn't happening. Yet, Niall showed, tears all ready in his eyes and some choice words for him.

It's not at all surprising Niall is going through this as quick as possible. He's only been here for five minutes and he's all ready about to walk out.

“Come now, Niall, you don't mean _that_ much to me,” Louis replies.

Niall shoots him a pointed look. “You nearly died, by the way. You promised you wouldn't.”

“Did I?”

Shrugging, Niall says, “Can't remember. Just don't do that again.”

He opens the door and Louis wonders if he's even going to get a hug out of this. As soon as the thought it through his head, Niall spins on his heel quickly and plasters himself around Louis. “I promise I'll let you know we're alive and well as often as I can,” he says into Louis' ear quietly. 

“I'm gonna miss you, Ireland,” Louis replies, patting Niall on the back. “Now, please don't cry on me.”

Niall pulls back, face wet and wiping his nose with his sleeve. “Fuck you,” he chokes out.

“I will miss you, though.”

Niall groans, pulls Louis into another tight hug and releases him almost immediately. He walks out the door without another word.

Louis stares after him.

“I'll send Claire gifts,” Liam says from behind. “Anonymously, of course.”

“Of course,” Louis agrees.

Liam shuffles around him, standing between him and the door. “I'll have to go. I was his ride,” he points out, nodding his head toward the door. 

They hug, not as tightly or emotionally as with Niall, but it's comforting and Louis will probably miss this the most about Liam. 

Still, there's something off. Liam hasn't said much since he's walked in the door, not that Niall gave him a chance, but there is definitely something going on.

Liam says he'll miss him and starts toward the door. It's awkward and not at all how Louis thought this would go. “Liam?” he starts. Liam stops in the doorway and turns around, eyebrow cocked. “What's going on?”

Liam sighs loudly, ducking his head. When he looks up, he's biting his lip. “Louis, mate, I know you love your family and I understand why you're doing this, but is the lives of two people really worth risking the lives of billions?” 

“What the _hell_ are you saying?” Louis demands, taking a step back. Does Liam not agree with what he's decided, is that is? 

“Even if you do get Harry and Claire, if even one of these groups succeed, you'll loose them,” Liam explains hesitantly. In even more painful ways than you've ever imagined.” 

Louis understands what Liam's saying. If they, for whatever reason, can't do their job the whole world will be doomed and Louis will lose his family anyway. It is something to think about, he guesses, but Louis would rather have only a year or two with his family than a whole lifetime if it means he got them at all.

“Zayn knows what he's doing.”

“Sure, but he's stronger with you. We all are. If we're to do this, we need you,” Liam says earnestly, eyes wide and calculating. “I'm not trying to talk you out of this, but-.”

“It sounds like you are,” Louis snaps. Liam stops, stares. “Look,” he sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I have to meet Broderick to get the aliases and whatnot. I've got to go.”

Liam nods. “I will miss you, Louis. I just wish you knew for sure what you were doing.”

He's out the door before Louis can say anything.

The whole way to meet Broderick he thinks about what Liam said. He was right. There's no way for Louis to know how many threats are out there and how many of them are close to their targets. It's scary thinking about it and now that he knows this stuff is happening – even if he doesn't know the specifics – he's always going to think about it.

These scenarios will always be in the back of his mind. He's still always going to be worried about his family. And what makes it worse is that he can't protect him from these threats. He doesn't know who they are or how they're a threat. And he's not sure he's willing to place his families safety in the same category as the world's.

Zayn may be protecting the world now and he's Louis' best friend, but Louis doesn't like that his family's safety is entirely in Zayn's hands now. 

It doesn't truly matter, though, because he'll be with his family. Alive and happy for however long they have. 

Somewhere deep down he thinks that Harry and Claire would never forgive him if he had a chance of saving the world, but chose to only save them. He knows he'd be upset with Harry if he were the one making the decision. Still, it doesn't matter. He's choosing his family.

But Liam's words run through his mind on a constant loop. _Is the lives of two people really worth risking the lives of billions?_

Is it? He's sure it is.

Louis, against his previous decision, chooses the job.

Three days later, Harry and Claire are informed of his death.

Two days after that, an article runs declaring him and his family dead.

A week later, he has a new job and all ready regrets it.

**Author's Note:**

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